[The elderly subject and social violence: the body as a factor in communication].
The social inferiority of an elderly person stems from his physical inferiority--actual or alleged but always possible. And yet this "inferior" body is paradoxically hypertrophic: at first it masks the person, then takes up its space until it negates it. Hence, an elderly person is not only a body but a lonely body. In his relations with other people, his body becomes a receiver, a receptacle and a source of communication. Social violence underlies relations with elderly people: such violence may be deceptive, widespread and continuous or, on the other hand, manifest, episodic and conspicuous. In the first case it may be a way of assigning subalternate roles to them in relation to the efficiency expected of them or a way of mythologizing their condition as one of pseudo-happiness. In the second case is generally relates to assaults, thefts, bag-snatching, etc. In any case, however, communication with them entails violence: their body perceives this and reacts to it. This is why their body's language is violent: their body cries out, it is stunned and it is acted upon (even--and unavoidably--in relations with a therapist).
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Chaire de Psychologie Médicale, Université de Bari, Italie.
Di Sciascio
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De Giglio
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D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D004552:Elder Abuse; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007697:Kinesics; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D012934:Social Isolation; D012938:Social Perception; D014754:Violence
Le sujet âgé et la violence sociale: le corps comme facteur de communication.