ABSTRACT
Dementia has come to be the fearsome doppelganger of prolongevist promises and harbinger of Swiftian purposelessness. Dementia appears as something that has become a leading narrative for ageing more generally, disqualifying personal, social and economic investment in the old. Dementia is one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people worldwide. Dementia has physical, psychological, social and economical impact on caregivers, families and society'. Dementia exemplifies within-age thinking, in so far as attempts are made to split the experience away from other age groups, or parts of the ageing self that are considered diseased. Swaffer has been active in expanding the US-based Dementia Alliance International (DAI), which offers exclusive membership to people with dementia, and the European Working Group of People with Dementia (EWGPD). A disease narrative, while holding many advantages, also contains a tendency to ignore interpersonal relations and wider social inequalities as factors contributing to dementia.
