Echoes in the silence

Abstract

This work covers nine years of care provided to a patient with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Due to the degenerative scenario of the disease, the communication method of speech was obstructed by the tracheostomy tubes, so it was crucial to replace the traditional models of communication. The spoken word could not take place as of a listening method therefore the communication means took place through the blink of the eyes as a sign of the letters responsible for the words construction. The text addresses an artisanal sensitivity of training empathy and intuition to make the interpretation of suffering and transform it into a narrative. Through the transformation potential that psychoanalysis offers, the focus was on the challenge of reaching the patient in his uniqueness, helping him to re-signify the vital meaning, as well as to elaborate the mourning in life of his death itself. Anguish, uncertainty and restlessness led the ability to calibrate possible desires in the face of the painful and implacable reality of the disease.