Deviances from “Normal Life”: When the Category “Dementia” Becomes Relevant in the Life of a Person

In this presentation, I analyze how the category “dementia” becomes relevant in the life of a person. It is known that “many dementia patients will already have lack of insight in the early stage of the stages of the disease process and therefore will be unaware of problems” (McKeith & Fairbairn 2001); thus, awareness by family or friends will be important. Sociological studies on early stages of dementia have focused on conflicts among the persons involved (Gubrium 1986). “Personality changes” and “difficulty doing normal tasks,” which represent early symptoms of dementia are always vague. Opinions may differ on what troubles can be termed as dementia symptoms, which leads to conflicts, especially among family members, on whether elderlies should be taken through the official diagnosis process. Although many studies have focused on disagreement, little attention has been given to consensus building. 
Considering the abovementioned studies, I examine Japanese cases, especially Ms. K and her daughters. How was Ms. K defined as having dementia by her daughters? 
I emphasize the following point: our decisions regarding the early symptoms of dementia should always be based on each elderly’s life course and normal patterns of everyday life. For example, whether someone has “difficulty doing normal tasks” is highly dependent on what kind of task was normal for the elderly individual (e.g., accounting, cooking). However, if we do not know the elderly’s personality, we cannot tell whether it has changed. In other words, the “normal life” is an important criterion of what is deviant and should be diagnosed as dementia. 
In conclusion, I would like to state that the knowledge about each elderly’s normal life is privileged knowledge of the family (Gubrium & Holstein 1990). Dementia is highly elaborated as a professional concept but also requires mundane reasoning and knowledge of the family.