[Journey to dementia].
The diary of the writer Annie Ernaux, Je ne suis pas sortie de ma nuit (I did not get out of my night) relates the author experience of accompanying her mother, suffering from Alzheimer's disease. This journal is analysed to understand what allows the writer to come closer to her mother, despite the disease progression. How does manage Annie Ernaux to exchange with her mother till the end of the dementia process? The aim of this paper is to understand, for Annie Ernaux first, then for other family carers, how to avoid reducing the patient to be a "burden" to be cared for. On the contrary, how to find a meaning in maintaining a relationship with demented subjects. Two linked carer's challenges are put forward, allowing to keep alive a quality relationship with the demented subject: 1) to accept, not only to give but to receive from him his experience of humanity in dependence, old age, and the proximity of death; this experience, when received, makes it possible to extend the carer's vision of humanity, and of his or her own humanity; 2) to fully recognise the demented as a human being, which supposes to leave the cartesian concept of man, where Reason is the cardinal faculty; another anthropology is needed, where the body and our incarnation are central, a body which is the mean for opening onto the world, communicating, and understanding each other. When facing this challenges, the carer will be able to exchange with the demented subject, an exchange which is certainly difficult, but which makes life more interesting, and better for him and the patient.
Rigaux
Natalie
N
Faculté de sciences économiques, sociales et de gestion, Namur, Belgique. natalie.rigaux@fundp.ac.be
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D017028:Caregivers; D006801:Humans