Ser e Não-Ser

o problema da identidade pessoal diante do paciente com baixos níveis de consciência

Abstract

This paper proposes an essay based on a utterance issued by a visitor to a patient in a state of akinetic mutism in an ICU bed. Considerations are outlined regarding the visitor's utterance, which says: “Mother, open your eyes for me to see you” - which we understand to reveal a hesitation regarding the perception of the patient's personal identity. We start from some of Wittgenstein's considerations about aspect seeing, to see/seeing and seeing-as. We approach notions that we consider assistants to the understanding of the question posed, such as “personal identity”, “person”, “me”, “you”. Through situated language, therefore pragmatic, we seek to approach the notions mentioned in order to better understand the situation of the emergence and the revelation of a way of perceiving and saying, which are correlated. By developing comparisons, contrasts and approximations of discourses, we seek to show how what we recognize as a personal identity, that is, that we deal with “the same person”, is closely related to the speak and the look, and certain ways of conceiving and perceive a psychic life. So that the success of an answer depends on the direction of the interpellation. Thus, this article aims to highlight the complexity of the topic when faced with limit situations (such as the person with low levels of consciousness) by circulating around the utterance-in-question.