ABSTRACT
The stories they told with humour and sadness, were of living hard lives and coping with upsetting events, of the loss engendered by their illness, but also of many positive life experiences both large and small. It is hoped that their accounts may lead to a greater understanding of dementia and of a more positive approach in our treatment of older people with this disease, through the sharing of a reality which may be different to our own. The investigation was interested in the concepts of dementia, memory and emotions, and their corresponding psychological, biological and social characteristics. It was concerned with an illness without certain aetiology or proven cure, the mysterious frameworks and processes of a mental phenomenon which is poorly understood, and the significance of the emotions for which there are over a hundred known theories. The literature on the presence of emotions in dementia is relatively sparse, although several publications have appeared on the subject.
