THE CONDITION OF THE HUMAN PERSON IN AGING

Abstract

The work is supported by theoretical research guided by the fundamentals of phenomenology and as objective to show the perceptions and understandings about old age, throughout history, from the descriptions of the old age phenomenon collected in several authors who deal with the issue. The look directed by the question made it possible to highlight the units or nuclei of meanings that express the experiences lived through systems that left the mark of the sense perceived by people and, at the same time, the mark of history and culture, bringing to light the question of old age as a biological, social and cultural fact, experienced in all times and spaces,  regardless of human will; as well as showing that the condition of the old was not and is not the same everywhere and not at all times, because: being born, growing, aging and dying has to do with the cycle of life proper to man and other living beings. With theoretical support, especially in Simone de Beauvoir and Cicero, we have demonstrated that the path of this age group, until its affirmation in the cultural imaginary, is associated with historical moments, cultures, medical knowledge, political movements and distinct interests, closely related to the process of social ordering and that because it is the result of the prolongation of a process, a reality that transcends history lived in a variable way,  according to the social context, old age can only be understood in its entirety, that is, with its biological, psychological and social peculiarities that modify the individual's relationship with time, with the world and with its own history.