MANNA, R. E.; LEITE, J. C. A.; AIELLO-VAISBERG, T. M. J. Imaginário coletivo de idosos participantes da Rede de Proteção e Defesa da Pessoa Idosa [Collective imaginary of elderly people participating in the Protection and Defense Network of the Elderly Person]. Saúde e Sociedade [online]. v. 27, n. 4, pp. 987-996. 2018.
Available on: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-12902018180888
The conception of the Protection and Defense Network of the Older Person (RPDI) stands out as a space of collective struggle for the rights of the older people, through systematic meetings between them and professionals from different institutions and by articulation for the implantation of public policy. This study, characterized as qualitative research and based on the psychoanalytic method, aimed at understanding the collective imaginary of the older adults, who attend meetings on aging organized by the RPDI. The RPDI participants were invited to a collective interview, in which the Thematic Drawing-and-Story Procedure was used as a resource for facilitating emotional communication. The analysis of these drawings and narratives made it possible to recognize two affective-emotional meaning fields, named “Old age as helplessness” and “Old age as personal responsibility”. The paths that led to the fields of meaning indicated heterogeneous dynamics in the collective imaginary about aging, and contradictions in aging have been identified. Despite the helplessness, continuous and persistent struggle, fatalities, and the denial of old age, there is also the strength that the experience of life gives them and the motivation they find in union with their pairs to face the challenges of life and fight for their rights.