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By examining the case of Alzheimer patients in the Paquid cohort receiving no specialized medical care for their cognitive disorders, we wanted to show how the symptoms associated with this disease – even if identified by the family and by the patients themselves – may be considered “tolerable” among these patients, while deemed “unacceptable” for those who do receive specialized care. Here we touch on a problem of cultural relativity, involving the social construction of a pathology founded on our understanding of what is normal and what is pathological. We approach this question through the bias of social representations. Upstream of this phenomenon, and according to the results of several international epidemiological studies, many people still believe that cognitive problems among old people correspond to a form of normality that is an inherent part of the ageing process. Compared with physically disabling pathologies, cognitive disorders are seen as insignificant and are trivialized as a consequence. This situation highlights a number of problems. Firstly, in terms of public health, it reveals an under-medicalization of dementia, coinciding with a lack of medical information and unequal access to medical care. It also raises the question of the central role played by the general practitioner in the detection of this pathology. In terms of social representation, it highlights the extreme potency of a representation of old age dominated by the loss of autonomy, in line with the subjective theories of “wear and tear” and an attitude of resignation regarding medical treatment, the persistence of an image of “softening of the brain” associated with senility, a perception of troubles as transient, linked to focalization on the need to retain memories of the distant past and, lastly, an attitude of denial when faced with the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, which conveys a frightening image of otherness.