Good question.

In fact I think that old people do need to reminisce or use narrative resources and think about their life. This exercise could be done about good but also about bad thinks, but always their own thinks, thinks that make part of their history of life and their sense of being.

Neimeyer had developed a lot of work on this and I recommend it. The example that he explore is in the area of bereavement and grief experience as other authors do it, but as Hansson and Strobe (2007, for example) pointed out older people have a truly connection with remiscences.

As a clinician I think that the most important is to be aware of the need and develop the communication and relational skills to listen and support their good and bad memories. We can help to elaborate the narratives and elaborate their sense of being in this stage of life.

Reminiscence therapy, a form of narrative therapy, is well suited for older people and has demonstrated efficacy for geriatric depression in evidence-based literature

See below:

Pinquart, M., Duberstein, P. R., & Lyness, J. M (2007). Effects of psychotherapy and other behavioural interventions on clinically depressed older adults: A meta-analysis. Aging & Mental Health, 11, 645-657.

Scogin, F., Welsh, D., Hanson., A., et al. (2005). Evidence-based psychotherapies for depression in older adults. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 12, 222-237.

It depends what you mean by 'old'. People tend to reminisce about high-impact events in their life. High school, going to college (University for us Brits), their first love, their children's birth and early years etc.. Because for most people the pattern of their life tends to be established by middle age, most of that they reminisce about later in life is 'in the good old days'. Anecdotally it is well-known that these reminiscences tend to either minimize the bad aspects of those experiences, or turn them into something entertaining. Thus someone's time in jail or poverty becomes a grand adventure, whereas at the time is was no fun at all. I do not know whether there is evidence on the extent to which such narratives get rewritten, and whether this is a positive thing.

For people with dementia, especially Alzheimer's where the ability to form new memories or recall recent ones is impaired, recalling older memories is very positive, helping to retain a sense of self and make sense of a world that, to them, is increasingly becoming incomprehensible. It also gives them something to think and talk about. It is very well established that keeping people with declining cognitive function mentally active helps them, and reminiscence about whet they *can* remember is an effective way to do this, as noted by the contributors above.

The only downside, in my experience, is that the narrator's grandchildren get quite bored by the same stories over and over again... .

If one has the patience, you can listen to them reminisce about their youth, their ancestors, their lives as young adults and young parents, their successes. Often it will be about good times which make them feel good and young. It is not often that their talk about bad times or failures.

I think they find it therapeutic and at the end of it - in some ways rejuvenated.

You may want to look at work by Jeffrey Webster who has developed the Reminiscence Function Scale that addresses the functions of reminiscing, in other words the contexts in which reminiscing occurs. One of the findings from this work is that people reminisce with similar frequency across the lifespan, but the functions of reminiscing are different at different ages.

Here is an old-er descriptive study of reminiscence content, frequency, and satisfaction (with age comparison): Merriam, S. B., & Cross, L. H. (1982). Adulthood and reminiscence: a descriptive study. Educational Gerontology, 8(3), 275-290

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0360127820080307.

According to the authors, the most popular topics for reminiscence among 60+ y.o., in descendent order, are: their marriage, a family celebration, a personal success, neighborhood where one grew up, or an exciting experience.

I am willing to bet that a lot of older men reminisce about their sexual escapades or near-escapades ("the one(s) that got away"). This is not likely to be manifested in typical surveys of retired middle-class homeowners. One needs to chat with or eavesdrop on some of the old rounders in downmarket bars in seedy hotels, where they are still managing, off and on, to hook up with willing female barflies.