Maintaining the self in dementia

The selfhood of a person with dementia can be undermined not simply as a result of biological factors, but to a far greater degree by psychosocial factors. In order to support and maintain the selfhood of the person with dementia to the greatest possible degree after the diagnosis is given and for the balance of the person's life, it is crucial to understand three fundamentally important and interrelated issues that affect the person with dementia as well as his or her formal and informal carers. These are: (i) negative stereotypes, negative self-stereotypes, and stereotype threat; (ii) malignant positioning; and (iii) aspects of selfhood that are affected by both of the first two issues. This chapter addresses each issue in turn and attempts to convey the meanings of dementia to the person diagnosed, to the healthy others who are carers, and how those meanings can come to create a filter of sorts through which the world is seen by all involved.