Ambivalence when faced with e-sports competition among nursing home residents. Rivalry and depressiveness stakes: Marie-Louise’s case, 93 years old

This article comes from an academic research, conducted with old persons living in French nursing homes and doing esports workshops, led by young volunteers. With the case of a 93-year-old resident, recently introduced to technological tools, we show how the stakes of videogames competition were at first met with her fear not to be good enough. However, her involvement in the competition mustered, through afterwardness, some elements from her childhood and adolescent psychic life. More precisely, by questioning her place in esports competition, this resident mobilized both the depressiveness necessary to aging, related to the confrontation to the limits inherent to the aging process, and tried to resolve a childhood trauma reactived after 80 years. This analysis also enabled to understand how these esports workshops, beyond the opportunity for entertainment and activity in order to take the mind off a monotonous life, could become devices supporting a potential therapeutic project.