Cultural Representations and Discourse on Dementia

Cultural representations and discourse on dementia encompass the ways in which dementia is portrayed, discussed and understood across diverse contexts such as media, literature, film and everyday conversation. These representations shape public attitudes, policy priorities and care practices by mobilising narratives of loss, decline, renewal or hope. Dominant framings frequently emphasise biomedical pathology and impending crisis, reinforcing stigma and fear, while alternative discourses foreground personhood, relational care and lived experience. Cross-cultural studies reveal that understandings of dementia differ in emphasis on cognitive impairment, behavioural change or familial obligation, reflecting wider social values. Emerging research interrogates the role of framing and promissory narratives in shaping societal responses and ethical debates around diagnosis, treatment and care globally.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have investigated how message framing influences attitudes towards dementia in different cultural settings, demonstrating that unity-framed communications engender positive emotional change and reduce stigma more effectively than dualistic or deficit-based frames. Such cross-national research underscores the importance of culturally sensitive campaign design. Foundational analyses of contemporary popular culture have examined the depiction of neural regeneration in genre fiction and film, revealing how promissory discourse around cures reflects and reinforces neoliberal assumptions about ageing, human value and economic sustainability, while limiting alternative visions of care and community.

Cultural Representations and Discourse on Dementia publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in cultural representations and discourse on dementia across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Framing: The selection and emphasis of particular aspects of an issue in communication to influence interpretation and response.

Discourse: Systematic ways of talking about and understanding phenomena that shape social practices and beliefs.

Promissory discourse: Narratives that foreground anticipated benefits of scientific or technological innovation, often projecting idealised futures.

Neural regeneration: Biological repair or regrowth processes of nervous tissue, invoked in cultural texts as a metaphor for cure.

Stigma: The social disapproval and negative stereotyping of individuals based on perceived differences, such as cognitive impairment.

References

1. Cultural representations of dementia. PLOS Medicine (2017).
2. Framing influence of emotions and attitudes towards Alzheimer’s disease on Slovak and Spanish laypersons: a cross-cultural approach. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2023).
3. Imagining a future without dementia: fictions of regeneration and the crises of work and sustainability. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2017).
4. ‘Small benefits and a certain risk’: Media representations of novel treatments for Alzheimer's disease. Social Science & Medicine (2024).
5. Battles and breakthroughs: representations of dementia in the British press. Ageing and Society (2019).
6. Cross-cultural representations of dementia: an exploratory study. Journal of Global Health (2019).