This study aimed to investigate reports of elderly psychotherapists about their childhood, seeking to identify, through the reported life experiences, elements related to family experiences. This is a descriptive and exploratory study with a qualitative approach, using the clinical-qualitative method. Five septuagenarian psychotherapists participated, chosen by the criterion of prestige recognized by peers in and outside psychoanalytic institutions. Open-ended interviews were used, which were audio-recorded and subsequently fully transcribed. The reports were processed through thematic content analysis. The data were interpreted with the support of the psychoanalytic theoretical framework of intergenerational psychic transmission. The analysis resulted in the construction of three themes: (1) The family as a symbolic network that defines the subjective position of its members; (2) Between reverence and rebellion: the opportunity to reinvent the family tradition; and (3) Building the belonging to the generational chain. It was found that the psychotherapists' narratives about childhood were structured around family life, based on habits and well-defined family roles, with a strict division of functions between father, mother and children. The subject's position in the brotherhood and submission to a founding myth of the lineage are elements that help to understand the formation of each participant in the intergenerational chain
Psychotherapists; family of origin; old age