Representations of dementia and their role in social expectations regarding ageing

This paper reviews existing research on dementia worry and its role in general fears and expectations regarding one's ageing. Understanding older people's knowledge regarding dementia, the way they construct meanings regarding dementia and older age, and their attitudes toward people already experiencing dementia is essential in formulating adequate social and health policy, as well as for our understanding of the experience of ageing (with, without or in addition to dementia). This paper explores dementia as a significant framework for the construction of anxieties regarding advanced old age and also a symbolic reference point for the representations of the third and fourth ages — successful and less successful ageing. We point out a crucial role on the part of dementia in the social images of ageing, not only as a symbolic embodiment of frailty but also as an essential framework through which the distinction between desirable “successful”, “active” ageing, and “failed”, “horrific” old age is (re)constructed.