Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T05:00:59.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Mask of Dementia: Images of ‘Demented Residents’ in a Nursing Ward

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Hava Golander  and
Aviad E. Raz
Hava Golander
Affiliation:
Department of Nursing, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, P.O.B. 39040, Ramat Aviv, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel.
Aviad E. Raz
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A description of the social construction of dementia among elderly residents of a nursing ward is offered, based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in an Israeli geriatric centre. This account focuses on the construction of positive social identities and the ascription of roles for residents labelled as ‘demented’. The findings illustrate the split between personal and social identity in dementia. The applicability of conventional socio-psychological constructs such as ‘I’ and ‘me’ regarding dementia is questioned, as the spoken manifestations of these constructs is critically examined from a symbolic interactionist perspective.

Keywords

Dementiasocial constructionsocial/personal identitiesnursing wardsymbolic interaction.
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , May 1996 , pp. 269 - 285
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amaducci, L. A., Rocca, W. A. and Schoenberg, B. S. 1986. Origin of the distinction between Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia: how history can clarify nosology. Neurology, 36, 1497–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bartol, M. A. 1980. Dialogue with dementia: non-verbal communication in patients with Alzheimer's disease. In Stilwell, E. (ed) Readings in Gerontological Nursing. Charles B. Black, Thorofare, N.J.Google Scholar
Becker, H. 1963. The Outsiders. Free Press, Glencoe, IL.Google Scholar
Cooley, C. H. 1902. Human Nature and the Social Order. Scribners, N.Y.Google Scholar
Cotrell, V. and Schultz, R. 1993. The perspective of the patients with Alzheimer's disease: a neglected dimension of dementia research. The Gerontologist, 33, 205–11.Google Scholar
Featherstone, M. and Hepworth, M. 1989. Ageing and old age: reflections on the post-modern life course. In Featherstone, M., Hepworth, M. and Turner, B. (eds) Becoming and Being Old: Sociological Approaches to Modern Life. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Featherstone, M. and Hepworth, M. 1991. The mask of ageing and the post-modern life course. In Featherstone, M., Hepworth, M. and Turner, B. (eds) The Body: Social Process and Cultural Theory. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Fish, S. 1980. Is There a Text in this Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities. Harvard UP, Harvard.Google Scholar
Golander, H. 1995 a. Rituals of temporality: the social construction of time in a nursing ward. Journal of Aging Studies, 9, 35.Google Scholar
Golander, H. 1995 b Old, chronically sick and institutionalized: being a nursing ward resident. Community and Health Care, 17, 63–79.Google Scholar
Gubrium, J. F. 1986. Oldlimers and Alzheimer's; The Descriptive Organization of Senility. JAI Press, Greenwich, CT.Google Scholar
Harré, R. 1983. Personal Being. Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Harré, R. 1991. The discursive production of selves. Theory and Psychology, 1, 59–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hazan, H. 1980. The Limbo People: a Study of the Constitution of the Time Universe Among the Aged. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Hazan, H. 1992. Managing Change in Old Age. SUNY Press, Albany.Google Scholar
Hazan, H. 1994. Old Age: Constructions and Deconstructions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hier, B. D., Hagenlocker, K. and Shindle, G. A. 1985. Language disintegration in dementia. Brain and Language, 25, 117–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hockey, J. and James, A. 1993. Growing up and Growing Old: Ageing and Dependency in the Life Course. Sage Publications, London.Google Scholar
Katzman, R. 1982. The complete problem of diagnosis. Generations, 7, 8–10.Google Scholar
Katzman, R. (ed) 1983. Banbury Report 15: Biological Aspects of Alzheimer's Disease. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, N.Y.Google Scholar
Kaufman, M. 1982. Treatable dementias. Topics in geriatrics. Massachusetts General Hospital Newsletter, 1, 1–2.Google Scholar
Kaufman, S. R. 1986. The Ageless Self: Sources of Meaning in Late Life. The University of Wisconsin Press, Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Kitwood, T. 1990. The dialectics of dementia: with particular reference to Alzheimer's disease. Ageing and Society, 10, 177–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitwood, T. 1993. Towards a theory of dementia care: the interpersonal process. Ageing and Society, 13, 51–67.Google Scholar
Kitwood, T. and Bredin, K. 1992. Towards a theory of dementia care: personhood and wellbeing. Ageing and Society, 12, 269–87.Google Scholar
Lemert, E. M. 1951. Social Pathology. MacGraw-Hill, N.Y.Google Scholar
Lyman, K. 1989. Bringing the social back in: a critique of the biomedicalization of dementia. The Gerontologist, 29, 597–605.Google Scholar
Marzinsky, L. R. 1996. The tragedy of dementia: clinically assessing pain in the confused, non-verbal elderly. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 17, 25–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mead, G. H. 1934. Mind, Self and Society. Chicago University Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Orona, C.J. 1990. Temporality and identity loss due to Alzheimer's disease. Social Science and Medicine, 30, 1247–56.Google Scholar
Parsons, T. 1951. The Social System. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Raz, A. E. 1993. The reinherited self: a case study in the dynamics of a social world. In Denzin, N. K. (ed). JAI Press Inc., Greenwich, CT.Google Scholar
Raz, A. E. 1996. (forthcoming). The discourse of aging and other age-related languages: how selves are authorised in the post modern world. In Denzin, N.K. (ed) Studies in Symbolic Interaction, JAI Press Inc., Greenwich, CT.Google Scholar
Reisberg, B. 1931. Brain Failure. Free Press, N.Y.Google Scholar
Sabat, S. and Harré, R. 1992. The construction and deconstruction of self in Alzheimer's disease. Ageing and Society, 12, 443–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shotter, J. 1983. Social Accountability and Selfhood. Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Terry, R. D. 1978. Aging, senile dementia and Alzheimer's disease. In Katzman, R., Terry, R. D. and Bick, K. (eds) Alzheimer's Disease, Senile Dementia and Related Disorders. Raven Press, N.Y.Google Scholar
Tomlinson, B. E., Blessed, G. and Roth, M. 1968. Observations on the brains of demented old people. Journal of the Neurological Sciences, 7, 331–56.Google Scholar
Urban, G. 1989. The ‘I’ of discourse. In Lee, B. and Urban, G. (eds) Semiotics, Self and Society. Mouton de Gruyter, N.Y.Google Scholar
Wang, H. S. 1977. Dementia of old age. In Lynn Smith, W. and Kinsbourne, M. (eds) Aging and Dementia. SP Books, N.Y.Google Scholar
Wells, C. E. 1978. Chronic brain disease: an overview. American Journal of Psychiatry, 135. 1–12.Google ScholarPubMed