1. Aprendendo a envelhecer .
- Author
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Slavutzky, Abrão
- Subjects
- *
COLLECTIVE memory , *FAILURE (Psychology) , *OLD age , *CULTURAL values , *FAMILY values , *OLDER people , *PATIENCE , *SMILING , *LAUGHTER - Abstract
Learning how to age is difficult; we age just as we live, between smiles and tears, successes and failures. In other words, to enjoy old age, to endure it, is a challenge until death. There were times when elders were valued for their family and cultural memory; now, as they are not integrated into economic production and consumption, as well as a certain contempt for memory, the elderly tend to be relegated. At seventy-nine, Freud asked in a letter to Lou Andreas-Salomé: “What degree of kindliness and humor must one have to endure the horror of old age?” (Mannoni, 1997, p. 25). I comment on three words in this query: horror, kindliness and humor. Learning to grow old is to be grateful for life and capable of maintaining awe in the face of the wonders of dusk and dawn. Essential in old age are friends, who ward off death, as J.B. Pontalis says in an interview with Veja magazine on friendship. Growing old requires patience, and patience is the word I add to horror, gratitude and humor with which Freud described old age. As analysts, may we therefore practice patience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022