Making sense of dementia using infant observation techniques: a psychoanalytic perspective on a neuropathological disease

Abstract

Dementia is relatively poorly understood from a psychological perspective and current care provisions focus preferentially on pharmacological and social interventions. Although dementia preys on a sufferer's cognitive attributes, this loss does not equate to a loss of emotional attributes in these patients. In dementia, the trajectory of life reverses and a degree of regression occurs. Through observations in an acute dementia ward, this work scrutinizes the potential that infant observation may hold for achieving greater insights into the internal worlds of dementia patients and their external environment. I look at the experience of caring for these challenging patients and examine the psychoanalytical constructs behind it. The findings derived from the platform of infant observation appear to support a more psychological rather than biological stance in approaching the complicated but fragile configuration of care on acute psychiatric units for dementia sufferers.