Life farewell and anxiety in psychotherapy groups in old age

Abstract

Based on the group work experience with senior people in the “Emotional Care Program for the Elderly”, a reflection is conducted on the psychoanalytic oriented psychotherapy groups towards their completion, the farewells, the losses and the way they are faced throughout life.

Saying goodbye to the group, saying goodbye to life, shared and lived experiences, anxieties and defense mechanisms that arise in the care of the elderly are revealed.

Keywords
loss, old age, farewell, death

Text
[Automatic translation from Spanish]:

A patient in a group told us that she was very concerned because she was awaiting a heart operation: “I am afraid of the operation, that I could… stay in the surgery” (to die); immediately another patient in the group said: !No what! Don’t worry, the other day — heading to the rest — I saw her run to take the bus, and I thought I couldn’t take it, I wouldn’t get it… And look .the group listened to him carefully cor, he ran so fast that he climbed the bus. What march he was wearing! How I would run! Did we understand how the patient was talking about running to catch the bus, or escaping the death she felt so present and so close by the imminence of the operation? Faced with the anxiety of death manifested by this patient in the operation, the group, represented by the person who said that he saw her run to take the bus, seemed to say that if they could run the death, they would not take it. The anxiety was obvious and the group preferred to run and escape.[…]

Marta Lleonart
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