Resumo

PICHLER, Nadir; ZANCANARO, Milena; SCORTEGAGNA, Helenice  e  OLIVEIRA, Talia. Perceptions of a group of elderly people about death. Psic., Saúde & Doenças [online]. 2021, vol.22, n.3, pp.921-927.  Epub 31-Dez-2021. ISSN 1645-0086.  https://doi.org/10.15309/21psd220312.

The aim of the text is to describe and analyze the perceptions of a group of elderly people about the process of death and dying, corroborating them with the analysis of Heidegger's existential finitude in the work Being and Time. The type of research is qualitative, exploratory and descriptive, with 10 elderly men and women, conducted in 2018, in the interior of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, through individual interviews and focus groups. What emerged from the speeches and discussions underwent content analysis, according to the purpose of the research. Thus, the extraction in units of significance allowed the elaboration of two thematic categories: Death as a natural process and awareness of finitude and Authenticity/Unauthenticity of the process of death and dying. Participants described death as a natural, mysterious phenomenon and a journey to be accomplished. With death, all existential projects cease and ancestral friends, religion, spirituality, and culture help to understand it. Still, the process of death is something natural, due to man's awareness of finitude and participants believe in the possibility of the soul continuing in the "other life" and that the kind actions of forgiveness, harmonious coexistence and beliefs contribute to death.

Palavras-chave : Death; Elderly; Anguish.

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