The authors examine the concepts of ego integrity, life review, and narrative reconstruction as cornerstones of theory that inform counseling practice with aging adults. Contemporary theories of grief reconciliation are proposed as useful models for understanding and creatively addressing the needs of adults who are 60 years and older.
Erik Erikson (1963) offered a widely accepted conceptualization of the psychosocial approach to development across the life span. Within this schema, Erikson outlined the issue of ego integrity as the central developmental task of the maturing adult. He described this as the evaluation of one's life contribution as worthy (Erikson, 1963;Levinson, 1978). The literature on contemporary grief research similarly presents adults' need to review life in hopes of making peace with their life story. Robert Butler, a pioneer in gerontology, is the founding director of the National Institute on Aging and the originator of the concept life review. Butler (2002) stated, "the strength of life review lies in its ability to help promote life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and self-esteem" (p. 6). In addition, contemporary models of mourning discussed the process of narrative reconstruction, the story-making and storytelling process of restoring meaning after loss (Neimeyer, 2001).
The purpose of this article is threefold. First, in this article, we synthesize the three concepts of ego integrity, life review, and narrative reconstruction to expand theoretical models and counseling practices with aging adults. Second, we suggest that grief reconciliation is a beneficial lens through which an understanding of the work inherent in reviewing life as integrity can be viewed. Third, we discuss narrative reconstruction methodologies as creative interventions for affecting the developmental needs of adults 60 years of age or older when the crisis of integrity versus despair initially emerges at the forefront.
InTEGRITY, REvIEW, AnD RECOnSTRUCTIOn
Synthesizing the concepts of ego integrity, life review, and narrative reconstruction enables counselors to expand their conceptualization of the developmental demands specific to aging adults. When Erikson (1963) described the task of ego integrity, he discussed the individual's perspective on the meaningfulness and worth of the