Intact social, cognitive ability, and selfhood: A case study of Alzheimer' s disease

Abstract

An in-depth case study of the discourse of an Alzheimer's disease (AD) sufferer reveals a variety of intact social and cognitive abilities as well as intact manifestations of selfhood as viewed from a social constructionist point of view. Intact social and cognitive abilities included those which have been referred to by Kitwood andBredin as being indicators of relative well-being-indicators understood to be abilities typically found among the healthy, and whose presence thus signals common ground between the healthy and the afflicted. Such abilities are found to exist despite the sufferer's severe losses of cognitive function as measured by standard tests. Possible brain mechanisms supporting such intact abilities are discussed as well as the importance of recognizing such intact abilities. Such recognition can enhance the interaction between AD sufferers and caregivers.

Resident Reactions to Person-Centered Communication by Long-Term Care Staff

“…5,17 Indeed, Kitwood 4 outlined creation and giving as indicators of personhood by the individual with dementia. Creation involves adding something unique to the conversation, whereas giving involves offering help or expressing affection.…”

Sense of identity in advanced Alzheimer’s dementia: A cognitive dissociation between sameness and selfhood?

“…Qualitative approaches based on analyses of verbal interactions involving patients have mainly explored the self as a unitary construct in the context of different models such as the social constructionist model (Sabat and Collins, 1999) or interactionist models of self. On the contrary, quantitative approaches have been designed to measure a specific component of the self such as self-knowledge (Gil et al, 2001), role identities (Cohen-Mansfield et al, 2000), self-recognition (Heman et al, 2005) and the identity component of the self-concept (Addis and Tippett, 2004).…”

Decision-Making Involvement of Individuals With Dementia

“…Some researchers argued that these individuals were unable to provide meaningful or reliable responses to quantitative research questions (Albert et al, 2001;Kerner, Patterson, Grant, & Kaplan, 1998). At the same time, there was a growing body of qualitative research and anecdotal evidence that noted IWDs' ability to share insights and make decisions about how to live their lives (Davis, 1989;McGowin, 1993;Menne, Kinney, & Morhardt, 2002;Sabat & Collins, 1999). These differing opinions on the ability of IWDs to be involved in research and in their own care planning remain a matter of debate.…”