This research sought at understanding the affective relationships between the elderly in asylums and their relatives. It took place in an asylum. The main objective was to find out the cultural, social, psychological and biological factors which lead to the internment of the elderly by their relatives and the effects of this action upon their lives. The research was guided by the transcultural theoretical reference, whose focus is the cultural care, emphasising its importance for the explanation, interpretation and prediction of the “taking care” phenomenon in Nursing. It is characterised as a research of
the social human area, exploratory, descriptive and qualitative. The data was collected through interviews, using the subjects’ life history. These data was evaluated through content analysis. The central categories of the study
which referred to the internment for the family were: family abandonment, socio-economical difficulties, physical dependence of the seniors and or health problems of the family’s care taker, and for the seniors it was lack of a care taker and family conflicts.

Keywords: 1. Internment;
2. Family;
3. Elderly and culture.