Couples living with dementia managing conflicting knowledge claims

Anne Marie Dalby Landmark,Anna Ekström,Elin Nilsson,Jan Svennevig

doi:10.1177/1461445620966918

Anne Marie Dalby Landmark, Anna Ekström + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445620966918

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Abstract

This conversation analytic study investigates how couples manage conflicting knowledge claims when one of the persons has dementia (PWD). The data are video-recordings of 16 couples talking with a third party. The analysis focuses on the negotiation of epistemic rights, more precisely how partners initiate repair and correct claims made by the PWD on matters belonging to the latter’s epistemic domain. We identified three main practices for correcting the PWD: (1) correcting the statement, thereby claiming epistemic authority for oneself and denying it to the PWD, (2) inviting the PWD to self-correct, thereby attributing some epistemic authority to the PWD, and (3) disagreeing and providing reasons for one’s alternative claim, establishing a more symmetric epistemic gradient. The PWDs responses to the corrections displayed different degrees of acceptance, ranging from self-denigration to resistance and insistence.

Highlights

Dementia is a term used for a number of progressive diseases that affect the brain and result in a range of cognitive symptoms
This paper has explored how persons with dementia and their partners claim epistemic rights to knowledge and assign such rights to each other in situations where a person with dementia (PWD)’s knowledge claim within their own epistemic domain is challenged by their partner
Our analysis illustrated a range of practices for initiating correction, and their consequences for the epistemic rights allocated to the PWD

Summary

Introduction

Dementia is a term used for a number of progressive diseases that affect the brain and result in a range of cognitive symptoms. Following this line of research, the current study seeks to further our understanding of how epistemic rights are negotiated by couples living with dementia, by looking at instances where the partners initiate repair on a knowledge claim made by their partner with dementia. The data for this study consist of video-recordings of PWDs and their partners talking with a third party, either in research interviews, or in informal conversations with care providers, family and friends. We present three practices spouses used for initiating repair of knowledge claims made by the PWD: corrections, invitations to self-correct and explicit disagreement They differ in terms of epistemic rights allocated to the PWD. 1 E: så får man väl hjälpa till me and one is PART supposed to help out with ett å annat där som dom behöver hjälp me some things there that they need help with (1.2)

LC: lagar ni mat tisammans?

L: 10 11 E

17 A: a twin sister?

27 G: a little bit more than just lunch perhaps?

Discussion