Re-imagining personhood: dementia, culture and citizenship

ABSTRACT

The paper explores the issue of personhood and citizenship. It looks at some of the philosophical and cultural challenges that accompany the experience of dementia and offers a way of thinking that can hold together the vital relationality that comes with certain models of philosophical personhood with the more concrete and politically engaged understandings of dementia that come through a focus on citizenship in general and social citizenship in particular. It suggests that if we bring together relational models of personhood with citizenship approaches, we can end up with a politically informed spirituality that has much potential in terms of developing and protecting the well-being of people living with dementia and those who seek to offer care and support.

KEYWORDS:

• Dementia
• personhood
• social citizenship
• human rights
• spirituality
• religion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Ruth Bartlett and Deborah O’Connor. “From personhood to citizenship: Broadening the lens for dementia practice and research.”