Old age and institutionalisation

There are multiple ways of experiencing old age and even of communicating it. From the perspective of psychoanalysis and the dramaturgical thinking of Antonin Artaud, this research covered the life narratives of eight elderly people aged between 66 and 89 living in the Cristo Redentor Shelter, an institution for the elderly located in São Gonçalo, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. From the interviews and collective and individual meetings, we were able to gain a deeper insight into the life history of these people before and during the period of institutionalisation, with the aim of understanding whether and how the subject can continue to assert themselves as a subject of desire in situations of institutionalisation. We emphasise that narrative is of fundamental importance for the investment in the ego on the part of the elderly people interviewed, so that the exercise of speech can be taken as a possibility of representing existence.