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Elderly people and their families are often confronted with deep concerns when the former are brought into an institution. Separation and mourning for one’s home reactivate Oedipal and pre-Oedipal issues that it is sometimes hard to elaborate. Alongside this, the institutions taking in the dependent elderly are led to give an idealised view of the care afforded that brings them into conflict with the families. In such situations, the psychologist may well be torn between the elderly individual, their family and the institution’s staff. Anzieu’s theorisation on family envelopes and more broadly psychoanalytical theories covering groups and institutions seem in our view especially relevant to come to an understanding of such situations. Considering the group dimension, whether relating to the families or the institutions, may provide psychologists with the tools they need to better understand and work on such situations.