ABSTRACT
Recent discussions of Alzheimer's disease - and other diseases of which dementia is an integral symptom - often focus on the perspective of the person experiencing the disease. Alzheimer's disease patients are frequently described in terms of the status of their "self." 2 In some cases, persons affected by Alzheimer's disease have been characterized as selves in various stages of deterioration or dissolution. They are seen as having become incomplete persons, or, in the extreme, as having lost their selves altogether - Alzheimer's disease has been called the "death of self" (Cohen and Eisdorfer, 1986, p. 259). By extension, these perceptions of the effects of Alzheimer's disease have shaped the care regimens advocated and developed by researchers and caregivers.
