The empirical research upon which this book is based was grounded in a psychosocial methodological approach, which examines the psychical processes that accompany socio-level experiences and brings a unique, multileveled understanding to the study of ageing, intergenerational relationships, and the life course. A psychosocial approach draws on insights, techniques, and theory from both psychoanalysis and sociology in order to understand the relationship between individual subjectivity and the social world. It recognises that there are psychical conflicting forces and tensions which exist between the internal world of the individual and the external, social world.

There has been a growing interest and significant expansion over the last twenty years in the area of psychosocial studies on a national and international level. Important studies in the psychosocial field have included explorations of love (Brown, 2006), intimacy, friendship, and transgenerational identification (Roseneil, 2006, 2009), and the fear of crime (Hollway and Jefferson, 2000), but so far there have been no identified studies that have used this approach to understand the subjective experiences of ageing and intergenerational relationships in later life.

An observance of the psychological dynamics of the research encounter with my participants played a vital role in developing a greater understanding of the experiences of ageing and intergenerational relationships in later life. For instance, in the initial stages of the research, I discovered, through a process of free association analysis, that taboo thoughts and ambiguous feelings about older parents were being expressed, feelings such as relief and liberation following the death of a parent, or once a parent had moved into care. These socially unacceptable attitudes are not always easily expressed through words, but through a psychosocial exploration these feelings could be revealed.

The projects

This book brings together the empirical and theoretical findings from four empirical projects and three systematic literature reviews which have been carried out over the last 16 years (2006–2022). The first empirical project entitled ‘The Negotiation of Midlife: Exploring the Subjective Experience of Ageing’ (2011), looked at the experience of men and women in the midlife phase of the life course with particular focus on the intergeneration relationships between adult children and their ageing parents. The two projects which followed were separate evaluations of two related projects run by My Home Life Essex Community Association.