Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Somaticization, the making and unmaking of minded persons and the fabrication of dementia. / Latimer, Joanna Elizabeth; Hillman, Alexandra.
In: Social Studies of Science, Vol. 49, No. 2, 01.04.2019, p. 208-226.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Somaticization, the making and unmaking of minded persons and the fabrication of dementia
AU - Latimer, Joanna Elizabeth
AU - Hillman, Alexandra
N1 - © The Author(s) 2019. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.
PY - 2019/4/1
Y1 - 2019/4/1
N2 - This article examines the strategies by which the different and variable signs of failing mental powers become known sufficiently for ‘dementia’ to be made into a stable bio-clinical entity, that can be tested, diagnosed and perhaps one day even treated. Drawing on data from ethnographic observations in memory clinics, together with interviews with associated scientists and clinicians, we document the challenges that clinicians face across the clinical and research domain in making dementia a stable object of their investigation. We illustrate how the pressure for early diagnoses of dementia creates tensions between the scientific representations of early dementia and its diagnosis in the clinic. Our aim is to highlight the extent to which the work of diagnosing dementia involves an intricate process of smoothing out seemingly insurmountable problems, such as the notoriously elusive connections between brain/mind and body/person. Furthermore, we show that a part of this process involves enrolling patients as minded, agentic subjects, the very subjects who are excluded from dementia science research in pursuit of biomarkers for the pre-clinical detection of dementia.
AB - This article examines the strategies by which the different and variable signs of failing mental powers become known sufficiently for ‘dementia’ to be made into a stable bio-clinical entity, that can be tested, diagnosed and perhaps one day even treated. Drawing on data from ethnographic observations in memory clinics, together with interviews with associated scientists and clinicians, we document the challenges that clinicians face across the clinical and research domain in making dementia a stable object of their investigation. We illustrate how the pressure for early diagnoses of dementia creates tensions between the scientific representations of early dementia and its diagnosis in the clinic. Our aim is to highlight the extent to which the work of diagnosing dementia involves an intricate process of smoothing out seemingly insurmountable problems, such as the notoriously elusive connections between brain/mind and body/person. Furthermore, we show that a part of this process involves enrolling patients as minded, agentic subjects, the very subjects who are excluded from dementia science research in pursuit of biomarkers for the pre-clinical detection of dementia.
KW - dementia
KW - diagnosis
KW - somaticization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062705712&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0306312719834069
DO - 10.1177/0306312719834069
M3 - Article
VL - 49
SP - 208
EP - 226
JO - Social Studies of Science
JF - Social Studies of Science
SN - 0306-3127
IS - 2
ER -