Rethinking repetition in dementia through a cartographic ethnography of subjectivity

Abstract

This article critically engages with the predominant understandings of repetitive bodily practices within a dementia context. Rather than interpreting such practices as pathological and abnormal, I instead approach them through an ethnographic mapping, paying particular attention to the affective dynamics of repetition. Critically developing Fernand Deligny’s insights and methods of tracing and mapping bodily movements in dialogue with Tim Ingold’s notion of dwelling, I demonstrate affect-underpinned encounters and interactions of repetitive phenomena. I then argue for the extension of recent anthropological discussions about affect, repetition, and subjectivity by suggesting a more productive dialogue among theories of affect, body, atmosphere, cognition, memory, language, and life history.

Temporal Belonging: Loss of Time and Fragile Attempts to Belong with Alzheimer’s Disease

“…However, anthropological studies on temporal experiences in dementia remain sparse, especially with a focus on the here-and-now patient-perspectives. Jong-min Jeong’s ( 2020 ) study of the repetitive movements by residents with dementia living in a Jewish care home in London is a notable exception. While staff viewed this behavior as signs of pathology, describing the movements of the residents as “wandering” and “obsessing,” Jeong shows how these acts can be understood as the residents’ way to engage with and attune to their ever-changing lifeworld by use of (among other things) tone, rhythm, and tempo (ibid.:3).…”