Loyautés complexes entre les personnes âgées et leur famille

Abstract

The Systemic approach is more and more interested in the dynamics of older persons and their families. Between others, the Contextual approach gives us resources to work with this population. Following the description of the major phases of the therapy, we describe loyalties in families with an older person. These loyalties are complex and riche but risk to become problematic as appear loyalty conflict or cleavage of loyalty. Symptoms can than emerge in other generations. The family members who give volunteer aid have to equalize their loyalty. I give a description of the process of becoming grand-parents and of the meaning of raising his grandchildren. Thanks to his multidirectional partiality, the therapist can recognize the loyalty and start a dialogue between the family members. This process is described and illustrated by clinical situations.