Since John Locke, regnant conceptions of personhood in Western philosophy have focused on individual capabilities for complex forms of consciousness that involve cognition such as the capability to remember past events and one’s own past actions, to think about and identify oneself as oneself, and/or to reason. Conceptions of personhood such as this one qualify as cognition-oriented, and they o...

OBJECTIVES To interrogate the concept of personhood and its application to care practices for people with dementia. METHOD We outline the work of Tom Kitwood on personhood and relate this to conceptualisations of personhood in metaphysics and in moral philosophy. RESULTS The philosophical concept of personhood has a long history. The metaphysical tradition examines the necessary and suffici...

End-of-life care studies on the nature of personhood are bourgeoning; however, the practices utilized for achieving personhood in end-of-life care, particularly in a cultural context in which interdependent being and collectivism prevail, remain underexplored. This study seeks to examine and conceptualize good practices for achieving the personhood of the dying elderly in residential care homes...

Within the social psychological understanding of dementia, individuals' personhood is central. A respect for personhood has been linked to successful person-centred care, yet research exploring subjective personhood in dementia is scarce. This study aimed to understand personhood by exploring the subjective experiences of those with dementia. Seven individuals with dementia were interviewed and...

The belief persists in philosophy, religion, science, and popular culture that some special cognitive property of persons like self-consciousness confers a unique moral standing. However, no set of cognitive properties confers moral standing, and metaphysical personhood is not sufficient for either moral personhood or moral standing. Cognitive theories all fail to capture the depth of commitmen...

This article is about the recognition of personhood when death occurs in early life. Drawing from anthropological perspectives on personhood at the beginnings and ends of life, it examines the implications of competing religious and customary definitions of personhood for a small sample of young British Pakistani Muslim women who experienced miscarriage and stillbirth. It suggests that these wo...

BACKGROUND Epidemiological predictions suggest that dementia will continue to rise and that this will have social and economic ramifications. Effective interventions, beyond pharmacological management are needed. Psychosocial interventions have largely been investigated in relation to carers of people with dementia, or with regards to their ability to manage dementia symptoms, improve cognition...

Background: The aim of this paper is to explore the concepts of personhood and compassion, as perceived by staff caring for people with dementia (PwD) in community-based dementia daycare. Autonomy in the Western culture is closely related to concepts of personhood and form the cornerstone of person centered care. Methods: Participants in this study were recruited from 100 multi-disciplinary pro...

BACKGROUND In dementia personhood can be understood as increasingly concealed rather than lost. The sense of being a person evolves in relationships with others. The aim of this study was to increase the understanding of the nature and quality of relationships between persons with dementia, family carers and professional caregivers and how these relationships influenced personhood in people wit...