Background: Physological abuse consists of threats, harassment, humiliation, telling off, refuse to talk, social isolation, abandonment as well as attitudes that lead to a feeling of insecurity and desperation. Institutional elder abuse is very elusive and an overall picture is still considered missing.

Aim: The purpose of this essay was to review psychological abuse within the elderly care.

Method: This essay is based on a literature study with systematic search.

Result: This article review led to main categories and the result of the study is presented after these. The first ones gives a picture of the kind of psychological abuse that occured within the the elderly care. The second one deals with the possible explanations for psychological abuse within elderly care. The result showed that verbal assault was the most common form of psychological abuse against elderly. A more discreet form of abuse took place when caregivers used depersonalization or infantilization. Isolation and threats occured at a lesser extent.

Conclusion: A caregiver with an inappropriate behavior towards elderly often means well basically but could psychologically abuse elderly patients because of one´s stress, fear, ignorance or anger. Stereotyped attitudes towards eldery (so-called ageism) could also, consciously or unconsciously, influence attitudes in institutional settings. The banalisation of psychological abuse, if the abuse is not questioned, will continue. Therefor we must ensure that carers have access to adequate knowledge in order to develop an appropriate attitude towards elderly.