What are the possibilities for understanding older age - a question with profound implications for communication between generations and for professional practice? Simon Biggs explores these possibilities by integrating psychodynamic and social perspectives to provide new insights into how older age is imagined, defined and experienced. Old age is, more often than not, hidden from the not-yet-old by belief in a potentially negative personal future and by a commonsense world that allows little opportunity for active collaboration between age groups. This book examines the conscious and unconscious attitudes and feelings of practitioners towards their older clients and looks at the ways in which these feelings affect their ability to function as professionals should. By studying self-perception, communication and power relations, and applying his conclusions to the helping professions, institutions and community care, Simon Biggs unsettles easy assumptions, offers a new framework for constructive social gerontology and gives priorities for improved practice. Understanding Ageing should be of interest to a broad range of students and professionals alike.