Maternal thinking in dementia care.

Carers of demented people living in a group dwelling were interviewed and observed individually and together. The aim of the study was to illuminate the thinking of pre-identified good dementia carers and to make explicit their means of understanding demented people. The tape-recorded and transcribed interviews were interpreted using a phenomenological hermeneutic method. The findings showed that these carers explicitly referred to the concept of mother, used when explaining their ability to understand demented people. They created a home-like atmosphere together with the inhabitants. The findings were interpreted metaphorically as maternal love, thinking and practice in creating an understanding relationship with the demented people they cared for. This metaphorical aptitude considered the fulfilment of life for these demented people and included partly unconscious tools that the carers used to compensate for the loss of abilities suffered by the demented people. The carers' attitudes towards the inhabitants of the ward and each other were based on respect as in a functioning family. Their ambition was interpreted as an attempt to create an atmosphere that functioned not only as an institution, but as an incubator for human lives, which had become dependent on others for their survival and the preservation of their human dignity throughout their physical existence.