Recognizing Dementia: Constructing Deconstruction in a Danish Memory Clinic.

Area of Science:

• Sociology of Health and Illness
• Medical Anthropology
• Philosophy of Medicine

Background:

• Dementia diagnosis relies on intersubjective recognition processes.
• Existing frameworks may not fully capture the complexities of patient identification in clinical settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how persons with dementia are constructed through recognition in a clinical context.
• To analyze the role of substitution in dementia diagnostics and its implications for personhood.

Main Methods:

• Ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a Danish memory clinic.
• Theoretical synthesis combining insights from Ian Hacking and Paul Ricoeur.

Main Results:

• Disease identification necessitates relatives substituting patients in medical narratives.
• Memory testing prohibits substitution, exposing cognitive deficits and potentially deconstructing the knowing subject.
• Clinical identification of dementia can lead to misrecognition and humiliation.

Conclusions:

• Dementia diagnostics challenge conventional notions of personhood and recognition.
• The study prompts a reevaluation of recognition practices and substitution in understanding dependency and personhood.
• Findings offer insights into diverse enactments of the person in clinical encounters.