Sozialität, Gedächtnis und Demenz: Eine soziologische Studie zum praktischen Vollzug des Erinnerns

This article presents a sociological perspective that does not adopt the neuropsychological perspective of dementia as an individual memory disorder and individual loss of knowledge but develops an independent view of the social aspects of dementia. It argues that dementia does not lead to a general loss of sociality and social knowledge, but that there are shifts in forms of sociality and that individual losses in social interactions can be partially compensated for by the interaction partners with and without dementia. Empirically, different interactions in the context of care are analysed in which the interaction partners act together to remember. In detail, it can be traced how interaction partners coordinate practices and actions under the conditions of Alzheimer’s disease and use these as locally available resources for their social remembering. With regard to the progression of dementia, a shift in the forms of sociality can be observed from content-related conversations about memories to bodily-affective forms of remembering.