Alzheimer’s Patients Other Than Themselves and Their Loved Ones: Circularity as Evil and Regularity as Remedy

Abstract

Any caregiver who has to face the discursive and gestural repetitions of Alzheimer’s patients must nevertheless set up a daily schedule routine. This apparent paradox brings together circularity on the one hand and regularity on the other, two principles based on the same axiom: iteration. Iteration can cause the patient to be locked up within himself when it takes the shape of circularity, whereas it can be beneficial when it takes the form of a reassuring regularity. The latter removes, at least temporarily, the threat of a dual break of the patient, from himself and from his friends and family. In this article, we consider iteration from two angles, linguistic and behavioural.