Introduction

What is ‘atypical ageing’? The increased variation among older adults results, in a sense, in no one person's experience of ageing being typical. All are individuals, all unique, all different. Ageing challenges our concepts of normality and abnormality. For example, osteoarthritis is very common in older people, affecting half of women over 65, and so the ‘normal’ or typical older adult may expect to have this often painful and disabling condition. This does not stop us from seeking understanding of and treatment for this condition, and aspiring to an experience of ageing where it is less prevalent. Similarly, when we consider some of the psychological problems experienced by older people, some are very common, but we can elect to view them as outside the range of a ‘typical’ ageing, where the older person experiences a good adjustment to the challenges and opportunities of later life.

This chapter covers the major psychological problems of ageing, focusing on mood disorders and the dementias, which may be said to be the most frequently encountered forms of abnormal or atypical ageing in this domain. Working with older people (or ‘the aged’ or ‘the elderly’ as they were then known) has been a recognized specialism within clinical psychology practice for over 30 years.