Balancing between Contradictions: The Meaning of Interaction with People Suffering from Dementia and “Behavioral Disturbances”

Abstract

Interacting with people who suffer from dementia poses a challenge for care providers, and the presence of behavioral disturbances adds a further complication. Our article is based on the assumption that behavioral disturbances are meaningful expressions of experiences. Six narrative interviews were conducted with care providers with the aim of illuminating the meaning of interaction with people suffering from dementia and behavioral disturbances. The interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed into text, and interpreted using a phenomenological hermeneutic methodology. The findings indicate that interacting with people with dementia and behavioral disturbances, as narrated by care providers, means balancing between contradictions concerning meeting the person in my versus her/his world, feeling powerless versus capable, and feeling rejected versus accepted. Interaction involves being at various positions along these continua at different points in time. Furthermore, it means facing ethical dilemmas concerning doing good for the individual or the collective. This is interpreted as a dialectic process and is reflected on in light of Hegel's reasoning about the struggle between the master and the slave.