Exploring positioning in Alzheimer Disease through analyses of family talk

Abstract

The ways in which people with dementia are positioned through talk has received considerable attention, but to date there has been little exploration of such positioning in everyday family life. Given the importance of family in caring for persons with dementia, it is critical that we understand, first, how family members position themselves and each other as they negotiate changes associated with dementia and, second, the implications of that process, both for individual members and for the family as a unit. In this study, two complementary approaches were used to explore positioning in the family of a woman with dementia. The first used interviewing to reveal how family members positioned themselves and each other in their conscious reflections about dementia. The second, drawing on conversation analysis, highlighted how they positioned themselves and each other in their everyday conversations together. Implications for the study of dementia in the family are discussed.