ABSTRACT
Dementia involves an intensification of moods. It involves recourse to ritual, confrontation, reconciliation, mutual adjustment, and development. We say of people with dementia that they are no longer the person they once were. But none of us are. We may, however, want to think that there is a core self that is not negotiable. Research observation of people with dementia is that they have “a rigid set of social standards” or are not wanting to be touched. In other cultures, animal spirits are very definitely alive and well in the human psyche. If we had more of that culture, we would not be so fearful of what we don’t understand or call less than human someone who is self-evidently one of us. Dementia makes philosophers of us all, and when not much is happening, everything is interesting.
