DEMENTIA AND CARE: GOING BEYOND PERSONHOOD? Online workshop – 19 June 2026
Organized by Annette Leibing (Université de Montréal), Fernando Vidal (MARC-DAFITS-URV), and Federico Zilio (Università degli Studi di Padova)
The related notions of personhood and personal identity have been the philosophical and ethical core of conceptualizing the anthropological nature of dementia and its subjective and intersubjective effects. Far from being mere theory, different understandings of those concepts have different practical effects. Witness the widespread emphasis on memory loss, the commonplace that in advanced dementia "the person is no longer there," or the broad diffusion of "person-centered care." How best to understand dementia and similar conditions remains the object of profound debates in the domain of caregiving and the human and health sciences, and raises the central question of this workshop:
Whether it is desirable or necessary to think dementia "beyond personhood." If yes, how and in which terms? If no, which understanding of personhood best matches the subjective and intersubjective experience of dementia, as well as the demands of humane care?
Those are the core questions this workshop intends to explore. It will do so in an interdisciplinary manner, by bringing together philosophers, medical anthropologists, and healthcare professionals. Dementia is largely characterized by the deterioration of the functions that have defined personhood and personal identity in the liberal tradition: memory, individual autonomy, self-consciousness. But the liberal definitions have been found wanting, and alternatives have been proposed. Personhood and identity are reconceptualized as relational or embodied; emphasis shifts from autonomy to vulnerability and interdependence; individualistic essentialism is rejected in favor of narrative and social constructivism; and overall, more attention is devoted to the phenomenological dynamics of the dementia experience. The emerging use of companion robots in the care of persons with dementia extends these issues into the realm of the posthuman.
This workshop does not intend to provide answers, but to chart open problems; discuss possibilities rooted in philosophical reflection, ethnographic insight and professional experience; and foster interdisciplinary dialogue.
