Attitudes held by geriatric patients, their families, and hospital staff are frequent obstacles to successful rehabilitation following acute illness. These attitudes interfere with patients' motivation for increasing physical independence and result in patients' becoming stranded at a more dependent level of function. Three distinct attitudes frequently encountered in geriatric rehabilitation are identified: the prejudice of ageism, the right of dependency, and the apathy of fatigue. Recognition of these attitudinal syndromes permits effective treatment interventions to enable poorly motivated geriatric rehabilitation patients to progress towards functional independence.