Discursos médico-eugenistas sobre a velhice no livro “Envelheça sorrindo”, de Renato Kehl (1949).

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the forms of aging considered healthy or not, in the book “Envelheça Sorrindo”, by the eugenic physician Renato Kehl, published in 1949. Using the concepts of discourse, biopolitics, eugenics, body and old age, this work also it proposes, from Michel Foucault's treatises, to raise and problematize intrinsic questions in the eugenicist medical discourses on the aging body from the initially mentioned work. For the development of this research, we chose Discourse Analysis, in Michel Foucault, as the Investigation and observation methodology in order to understand the discursive structures and medical practices aimed at the elderly, prophylaxis and diseases related to the aging body, and other issues involving the elderly subject and ways of aging, based on medical considerations and recommendations, as part of a biopolitical project on self-care, with the body and the promotion of life. The study of the analyzed work made it possible to identify the subjectivities and structures of the eugenic discourses of the physician Renato Kehl, in the first half of the 20th century, which highlights the emergence of ageist discourses and practices that still affect the aging body and old age even today. in our Brazilian society, commonly taken as an invalid, dirty, ugly, weak, morbid and sick body, and that should be avoided by all those who sought, in clinical medicine, devices and strategies to possess and promote a beautiful, healthy, healthy and long-lived.