Self-experience in Dementia
Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia September 11, 2015 Michela Summa, Thomas Fuchs 13 citations
Dementia impairs narrative self-understanding, but more basic levels of self-experience—pre-reflective self-awareness and an episodic sense of self—are preserved until the final stages of the illness. The paper distinguishes three layers of selfhood: the minimal or pre-reflective self, the episodic self, and the narrative self. Against the view that dementia reduces the self to a bare minimal self, the authors argue that forms of self-reference and episodic self-awareness remain intact even when narrative identity is disrupted. This analysis clarifies conceptual confusion in dementia research about self and person.