B. Open-Ended Questionnaire

Appendix B

Open-Ended Questionnaire

Basic biographical data collection: Age now: Age when entered candidacy: Professional license:

**These interview questions will guide the interview and provide prompts for conversation

- Can you describe your early years in clinical practice? (Prompts: What was important for you? What were you worried about? What did you enjoy most about practicing? What did you enjoy least? How did you imagine the length and scope of your career at the outset?)

- Over the years have your feelings on the length of your career shifted at all? (Prompt: Have you moved towards wanting to work longer or retire earlier? Why?)

- Where would you consider yourself in your career right now in terms of development as an analyst and retirement? (Alternate: If you had to describe your arch as an analyst how would you and where are you now?

- Have you structured your practice any differently over the years? (Prompt: Do you take on different patients, work different hours, have a different theoretical focus?

- Do you spend your time differently than you did at the beginning of your career?

- Does practicing psychoanalysis in the later phase of life feel like what you expected it would?

- Have you experienced aspects of aging that have impacted your practice? Have you had illnesses or other disruptions that could be attributed to aging?

-How have you handled these incidents clinically?

-Were there any tools or other resources you used to consider how to manage these situations?

- What do you imagine your version of retirement would be? (Prompts: Can you tell me about it? How did the plan originate? Has the plan changed at all over the years?)

- Do you have any examples in your institute or in your broader circle of analytic colleagues and friends who had either a good retirement or a bad one?

- What are your thoughts about how the aging of psychoanalysts should be dealt with in the clinical situation? (Prompts: What has shaped your beliefs on this issue? Have you witnessed experiences with colleagues that influenced your decisions for aging?)

- Do you have discussions with your colleagues or within your institute about how to manage aging in clinical practice?

- What has been the most helpful resource for you as you work with the dynamic of aging as a psychoanalyst?

- What is a resource that you wished might have been available? What do you think would be helpful for aging psychoanalysts of the future?