Centre for Policy on Ageing



Surviving manifestations of selfhood in Alzheimer's disease — a case study
Author(s)	Steven R Sabat
Journal title	Dementia: the international journal of social research and practice, vol 1, no 1, February 2002
Pages	pp 25-36
Keywords	Dementia ; Personality ; Cognitive processes ; Theory ; Case studies.
Annotation	A Social Construction Theory analysis of selfhood is applied to the natural conversational discourse of a person moderately to severely afflicted with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Revealed in this discourse are: an intact Self 1, the self of personal identity; and Self 2, comprising mental and physical attributes and related beliefs. New Self 2 attributes include deficits connected with the neuropathology of the disease. The multiple Self 3, social personae, which require the co-operation of healthy others, are found to exist; but this aspect of self is vulnerable to the extent to which the attention of others is focused on new dysfunctional Self 2 attributes, the afflicted person's social persona is restricted to "the patient". If attention is focused on remaining healthy Self 2 attributes, it is possible for the afflicted person to construct worthy Self 3 personae in which he or she can take pride and enjoy a measure of satisfaction. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-020624217 A
Classmark	EA: DK: DA: 4D: 69P
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.