ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Multidisciplinary eff orts involving sociolinguists and social psychologists have highlighted the complex but clear connections between the linguistic and cognitive changes that accompany Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and an individual’s social identity in everyday life; such work speaks, for example, of identity crises, loss of self, and profound changes in personality that accompany the disease (Cohen & Eisdorfer, 1986; Davis, 2005; Hamilton, 1994, 1996; Kitwood, 1997; Ramanathan, 1997; Sabat & Harre, 1992; Sabat, 2001; Shenk, 2005). In all of this work, dementia is approached as a human issue within multiple linguistic and social contexts, rather than exclusively as a slowly progressive brain disease. Th e motivation underlying such research comes from what Leibing (2006, p. 242ff .) calls the ‘personhood movement’ in dementia studies (cf. Kitwood, 1997), in which ‘personhood’ refers
to “the person within-the refl exive, immaterial, communicable essence of a person that is located deep within the body, but that is sometimes veiled by symptoms” (Leibing, 2006, p. 243). Th is shift away from the more pervasive medical model of dementia is refl ected in its emphasis on the “capacities of the feeling person and not only on his or her losses” (Leibing, 2006, p. 255) as well as on a redefi nition of memory as “interactive and not individualized” (Leibing, 2006, p. 255). Not surprisingly, this move toward a focus on personhood has been accompanied by a heightened interest in applying the fi ndings of basic research to help individuals with dementia and those who care for them, for example, by enhancing communication and lift ing self-esteem. Most scholars working in this area are motivated by the observation that “relatively little can be done to arrest the underlying brain disease, [but] much can be done to promote health and wellbeing” (Downs et al., 2006, p. 248), resulting in a focus on the identifi cation of active coping strategies and the enhancement of social environments for the individual with dementia.
