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Title Thinking about dementia : culture, loss, and the anthropology of senility / edited by Annette Leibing, Lawrence Cohen
Published New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, ©2006

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Description 1 online resource (vii, 299 pages) : illustrations
Series Studies in medical anthropology
Studies in medical anthropology.
Contents Dementia-near-death and "life itself" / Sharon R. Kaufman -- The borderlands of primary care : physician and family perspectives on "troublesome" behaviors of people with dementia / Ladson Hinton [and others] -- Negotiating the moral status of trouble : the experiences of forgetful individuals diagnosed with no dementia / André P. Smith -- Diagnosing dementia : epidemiological and clinical data as cultural text / Janice E. Graham -- The biomedical deconstruction of senility and the persistent stigmatization of old age in the United States / Jesse F. Ballenger -- Genetic susceptibility and Alzheimer's disease : the penetrance and uptake of genetic knowledge / Margaret Lock, Stephanie Lloyd, and Janalyn Prest -- Coherence without facticity in dementia : the case of Mrs. Fine / Athena Helen McLean -- Creative storytelling and self-expression among people with dementia / Anne Davis Basting -- Embodied selfhood : an ethnographic exploration of Alzheimer's disease / Pia C. Kontos -- Normality and difference : institutional classification and the constitution of subjectivity in a Dutch nursing home / Roma Chatterji -- Divided gazes : Alzheimer's disease, the person within, and death in life / Annette Leibing -- Being a good rōjin : senility, power, and self-actualization in Japan / John W. Traphagan
Summary Cultural responses to most illnesses differ; dementia is no exception. These responses, together with a society's attitudes toward its elderly population, affect the frequency of dementia-related diagnoses and the nature of treatment. Bringing together essays by nineteen respected scholars, this unique volume approaches the subject from a variety of angles, exploring the historical, psychological, and philosophical implications of dementia. Based on solid ethnographic fieldwork, the essays employ a cross-cultural perspective and focus on questions of age, mind, voice, self, loss, temporality, memory, and affect. Taken together, the essays make four important and interrelated contributions to our understanding of the mental status of the elderly. First, cross-cultural data show the extent to which the aging process, while biologically influenced, is also very much culturally constructed. Second, detailed ethnographic reports raise questions about the behavioral criteria used by health care professionals and laymen for defining the elderly as demented. Third, case studies show how a diagnosis affects a patient's treatment in both clinical and familial settings.; Finally, the collection highlights the gap that separates current biological understandings of aging from its cultural meanings. As Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia continue to command an ever-increasing amount of attention in medicine and psychology, this book will be essential reading for anthropologists, social scientists, and health care professionals
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes This work is licensed by Knowledge Unlatched under a Creative Commons license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode
Print version record
Subject Medical anthropology.
Dementia.
Alzheimer's disease.
Public health -- Anthropological aspects.
Anthropology.
Older people.
Anthropology
Dementia -- psychology
Aged
Alzheimer Disease -- psychology
Clinical Medicine -- methods
Dementia
Alzheimer Disease
Aged, 80 and over
anthropology.
elderly.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture.
MEDICAL -- General.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- General.
MEDICAL -- General.
Older people
Anthropology
Alzheimer's disease
Dementia
Medical anthropology
Public health -- Anthropological aspects
Form Electronic book
Author Leibing, Annette
Cohen, Lawrence, 1961-
LC no. 2005019852
ISBN 0813539277
9780813539270
0813538025
9780813538020