Knowledge and practice in Alzheimer's Disease: a relation between memory and aging

• Grant number: 12/09116-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: October 01, 2012
• End date: May 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Urban Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Guita Grin Debert
• Grantee: Daniela Moreno Feriani
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Labeled as "the disease of the century", Alzheimer's has raised increased interest from the medical community, the media, and social science researchers dedicated to the study of health and disease. With theoretical perspectives in Medical Anthropology as a base, this research intends to analyze the construction of Alzheimer's as a social concern in order to understand how the intersection of knowledge and practices from different areas imply in ways of thinking and experiencing the disease. Through qualitative methodology, conducting field research in the Brazilian Alzheimer's Association, performing interviews, and observing the behavior or doctors, Alzheimer's patients, and their family members in different situations, this project aims to understand the dynamics of strategy negotiations between these different actors, taking into consideration gender, class, and age markers in the ways of perceiving and living the illness. This research hopes to contribute to a greater understanding of the conditions that enable the social management of diseases in the contemporary world, the meanings activated by memory-use, and the implications that Alzheimer's has in the pathologizing of old age. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

FERIANI, Daniela Moreno. Between blows and astonishment: aesthetic and experience in Alzheimer's disease. 2017. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas Campinas, SP.