Emotional regulation through second language use in dementia

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundCognitive reserve has been linked to bilingualism, yet the mechanisms are still unknown. Older bilinguals have been shown to benefit from cognitive advantages (Bak et al., 2014), but could dual language use affect emotional processing? Second language use has been shown to facilitate implicit emotional regulation (Morawetz 2017), and thus be a therapeutic tool in treating trauma (Dewaele and Costa 2013), and diminishing levels of distress associated with memories encoded in one’s mother tongue (Dylman and Bjarta 2018). As some dementia patients are unable to control the intensity of their affects, could a second language be employed as a means of emotional continence?MethodWe had three participants with dementia take the Thematic Apperception Test (T.A.T.), a projective personality test, in French, their mother tongue, and in English, their second language. The T.A.T involves telling stories about emotionally charged images, and responses are measured in terms of rigidity, emotional flexibility, conflict avoidance, and primary processes. The participants’ stories were recorded and transcribed, and scored by calculating the percentage of neurotic, borderline, and psychotic defense mechanisms employed.ResultAs a function of the language used, the participants’ scores differed. Most strikingly, the stories told for some of the images were more complex in English than in French. In their non‐dominant tongue, two participants were able to express more disturbing themes such as rivalry, crime, and sexuality, while these topics were avoided in their mother tongue. Finally, for two participants, a more positive interpretation was given to the last card, a blank white image, when described in English as opposed to its description in French.ConclusionThis exploratory study provides some support for the use of a second language as a means of emotional regulation in patients living with dementia. It is interesting in the light of cognitive reserve in older adults, as the use of a second language could potentially have a beneficial effect on cognition and delay the onset of dementia (Bialystok et al., 2004). Moreover, using a second language could also be advantageous from a psychological standpoint, facilitating the verbalization of negative emotions, and changing one’s perspective.