Theodora Aligizaki
University of Crete, Greece
Title: The experience of aging in a nursing home: biographies and dominant Discourses of aging in different social contexts
Biography
Biography: Theodora Aligizaki
Abstract
In the present dissertation, the researcher studies the aging experience in a nursing-care home while working as a psychologist in the same institution. Methodologically, she uses “Narrative Gerontological Analysis” by interviewing elderly residents and making participatory observations. This dual role raises ethical concerns about whether the position of authority in the elderly center (psychologist) is affecting this specific vulnerable population. But through theories such as “Levina's ethics” and “self-subjugation” according to Foucault, her dual role will not be approached as divided, but as a single-holistic role, in which the implementation of a holistic care is a key concern. Specifically, the researcher, both before and at the end of the research process, establishes a continuous relationship with the participants, based on the ethics principle, according to Levina. The research aims, to understand the effective functioning of the narratives of the participants in relation to experience “aging in a nursing home”. According to literature, narratives help individuals who live in an elderly center, to build a cohesive self in the present, or resist to various forms of oppression. This transcendental analysis states that individuals in their narratives are not pathetic carriers of the dominant Discourses, but at the same time they express their knowledge resistance to them and deconstruct them. By giving individuals the opportunity to relate their experiences, the researcher recognizes their need for resistance against dominant Discourses of aging, aiming to create a quality of life that is not defined by social stereotypes about "successful aging" but it is created from the voices of elderly people themselves.