Papers - Kinoshita, Shu

How Does the Category Become Relevant in the Life of a Person?:Defining "Deviances" as Symptoms of "Dementia"

KINOSHITA Shu

SOSHIOROJI (SHAKAIGAKU KENKYUKAI)  57 ( 1 ) 93 - 109,177 2012

Accepted,  ISSN  0584-1380

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In this article, the subject of my analysis is "how does the category become relevant, initially, at different times, and in different ways, in the life of a person?" (See Lynch2001: 249 about "dementia".) Sociological studies on early dementia (Deguchi 1999; Amada 2007; Iguchi 2007) focus on conflicts among family members. The early symptoms of dementia are always vague (e.g., forgetfulness, character change). Therefore, family members may differ in regarding whether certain "troubles"（Emerson & Messinger1977）can be termed dementia symptoms; this will lead to conflicts among the family members. While considering the abovementioned studies, I examine how Ms. J and Ms.I define their mother, Ms. K, as being demented, despite the inconsistency in their early decisions. I emphasize the following two points. First, considering the accountability of family members regarding the "deviances" in the elderly, a family member's perception of "deviance" in the behavior of an elderly person does not necessarily imply that the elderly person is demented, because there are many possible interpretations of such behavior besides dementia; the behavior could result from non-dementia illnesses or factors such as family discord. So family members attribute the elderly person's "deviance" to dementia and disregard other possible causes for such behavior, only when the context of social interaction suggests it. Second, considering the importance of acknowledging social settings, the mere "deviances" noticed in behavior cannot be categorized as the symptoms of clinical disorders such as dementia. As suggested above, family members' decisions regarding the symptoms of dementia should always be based on an elderly person's pattern of everyday life and the context of any specific interaction. Therefore, they must consider the social settings that form the context of social interaction.

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