Recently, elder abuse has emerged as a social problem and this study was initiated on the basis of the
awareness that there are few studies on their real lives of the elderly. The purpose of this study is to
observe the mechanism of elderly abuse using art therapy as a life-history methodology. 14 life-history
interviews with PTSD art therapy were carried out and those interviews were analyzed by Schütze’s
narrative interview. Triangulation and member checking between the researcher and research participant
were used to facilitate validation of the results of the analysis. As a result, the interpretation of their lives
was changed positively and actively through art therapy as a life-history methodology. As art therapy as
a life-history methodology progressed, common mechanisms of domestic violence experience and son
preference were found in research participants, and it was also found that these two mechanisms were the
cause of participants’ being victims of elderly abuse and new aspect of elder abuse was confined to elder
women victims. In addition, art therapy as a life-history methodology contributed to quick rapport
formation and strengthened the relationship between researcher and research participant during participants’
therapy programs by revealing their life history and emotion which they were unable to speak out.