Andrea Josephine Capstick
Institute of Educational and Social Research
The Manchester Metropolitan University
This study is grounded in my concerns, as a HE lecturer in Dementia
Studies, about the difficulties practitioner-students face in writing
reflectively about their work with people who have dementia. I
introduced a short fiction film, Ex Memoria, into the
curriculum, initially as a means of ascertaining whether the use of an
arts-based approach would facilitate greater reflection among students
who were more familiar with biomedical perspectives on dementia. The
film attempts to convey the experiences of a woman with dementia, a
Polish-Jewish refugee from wartime Poland, now living in a London care
home. Twenty two students completed either coursework assignments or
reviews based on the film. The findings suggest that the psychosocial
perspective which underpins the Dementia Studies programme, and has been
widely promoted as a corrective to the biomedical model ‘standard
paradigm’ (Kitwood, 1997), itself contributes to the ahistorical and
depoliticized positioning of people with dementia, their families, and
professional caregivers. In conclusion I argue that the psychologisation
of dementia has contributed to its academic marginalisation. A broader,
more transdisciplinary approach is required; one which sets dementia in
the context of 20th century history, and thus avoids the social amnesia
(Jacoby, 1996) currently affecting dementia studies.
Jacoby R (1996)
Social amnesia: a critique of contemporary psychology.
London: Transaction.
Kitwood T (1997)
Dementia reconsidered: the person comes first. Buckingham:
Open University Press.