Bringing the Social Back in: A Critique of the Biomedicalization of Dementia

This paper presents the argument that social gerontologists have adopted a biomedical model of senile dementia, neglecting social factors involved in the definition and interpretation of brain disease and in the experience of dementing illness. This biomedical model is critiqued, including the definition of pathology, the attribution of behavioral changes to disease stages, and the legitimation of medical control over persons with dementing illnesses.