“Não sou mais quem eu era”: o diálogo construído na construção da identidade em narrativas de uma pessoa com Doença de Alzheimer

Abstract

The population’s aging is a reality that has creating preoccupation in different scopes. Because they demand specific care, the elderly are an attention group on the Health Area. Between the pathologies whose aggravating factor is the age, lies the Alzheimer’s Disease (DA). In recent studies (BATEMAN; MC MADE, 2017), it was estimated that, until 2030, one in each three people eighty years old or more will have developed the DA. Although this prognosis, it’s causes, and treatments are still undefined. Therefore, it is clear how important is to turn the attention to the way those individuals interact with the social world that surrounds them. In this context, this monography presents an interpretative qualitative study in which narratives that emerged in interviews with a participant with the DA were analyzed. Those narrative interviews, posteriorly transcribed, were conducted by the Group NIL (Narrative Interaction and Language). The study is based on the conception that narratives are a co-construction between the interactors, reflecting and developing meanings and identities (FREITAS, 2017; BASTOS; ANDRADE, 2015; FLANERRY, 2015). Inside those narratives and the process of identity construction, the study focused on the uses of the constructed dialogue, according to the proposition of Tannen (2007). This way, it was aimed to comprehend the ways the participant used the constructed dialogue to construct identity on her narratives. To do so, it was done a search for cases when this linguistic resource was used, its classification according to how the author previously mentioned describes, and an analysis in the interaction. The results have shown that there are evidence of the usage of constructed dialogue as a way to express complex thinking, as well as validation of characteristics and arguments. It was noticed that, although the difficulties caused by the DA, the participant was able to keep active in the interactions, using linguistic resources. In the analysed narratives, it was also clear how the reasearcher has a relevant role in the interactions, promoting the narratives and helping in the construction of meaning.