Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T05:16:02.086Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Towards a Theory of Dementia Care: Personhood and Well-being

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Tom Kitwood  and
Kathleen Bredin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Some foundations are laid for a social-psychological theory of dementia care. Central to this is a conceptualisation of personhood, in which both subjectivity and intersubjectivity are fully recognised. Evidence is brought forward concerning relative well-being even in those who are, from a cognitive standpoint, severely demented. In the light of this it is argued that the key psychological task in dementia care is that of keeping the sufferer's personhood in being. This requires us to see personhood in social rather than individual terms.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , September 1992 , pp. 269 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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

Notes

1 Kitwood, T., The technical, the personal and the framing of dementia. Social Behaviour, 3 (1988), 161–180.Google Scholar

2 See, for example, Shotter, J., Images of Man in Psychological Research. Methuen, London, 1975.Google Scholar

3 Menzies, Lyth I., Containing Anxiety in Organizations. Free Associations Books, London, 1989.Google Scholar

4 Freire, P., Cultural Action for Freedom. Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1972.Google Scholar

5 Kitwood, T., The dialetics of dementia: with particular reference to Alzheimer's disease. Ageing and Society, 10 (1990), 177–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 Bredin, K., A Review of Psycholosocial Interventions in Dementia. University of Bradford, 1991. Copies available on request.Google Scholar

7 See, for example, Mair, M., Between Psychology and Psychotherapy: Towards a Poetics of Experience. Routledge, London, 1989.Google Scholar

8 This term, or rather ‘the pathology of normalcy’ was coined by Erich Fromm. See Fromm, E., The Sane Society. Routledge, London, 1956.Google Scholar

9 See, for example, Gubrium, J.Old-timers and Alzheimer's: the Descriptive Organization of Senility. JAI Press, London, 1986.Google Scholar

10 Gilleard, C. Losing One's Mind and Losing One's Place. Address to the British Society of Gerontology, 1989.Google Scholar

11 Kitwood, T.Concern for Others. Routledge, London, 1990.Google Scholar

12 Malerstein, A.J. and Ahern, M., A Piagetian Model of Character Structure. Human Sciences Press, New York, 1982.Google Scholar

13 Smail, D.Illusion and Reality. Dent, London, 1984.Google Scholar

14 Bell, J. and McGregor, I., Living for the moment. Nursing Times, 87 (1991), 18, 45–47.Google Scholar

15 Rovner, B., Lucas-Blanstein, J., Folstein, M. F. and Smith, S. W., Stability over one year in patients admitted to a nursing home dementia unit. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 5 (1990), 77–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 Diamond, M., The potential of the ageing brain for structural regeneration. In Arie, T. (ed.), Recent Advances In Psychogeriatrics, 1. Churchill, London, 1985.Google Scholar

17 Karlsson, I., Brane, G., Melin, E., Nyth, A-L. and Ryko, E. Effects of environmental stimulation on biochemical and psychological variables in dementia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica (1988), 207–213.Google Scholar

18 We acknowledge the insight of Mr Ian Mackie, Manager of Northern View Day Hospital, Bradford, in helping to clarify this point.

19 Erik, Erikson, in his theory of life-stages, sees the development of basic trust as the first task for the infant. Erikson, E., Childhood and Society. Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1965.Google Scholar