Max Wallack pointed out a problem of patients saying “No” to caretakers, refusing to carry out basic life activities such as bathing.  It is interesting how Alzheimer’s patients seem to be more courageous, or upfront, or aggressive as the disease progresses.  One of the explanations that I present in my book “When Words Have Lost Their Meaning; Alzheimer’s Patient’s Communicate Through Art” is a phenomenon call disinhibition.  This refers to the fact that the strong socializing influences that have been absorbed and learned throughout one’s life i.e. normal inhibitions that we all have, are slowly eroded.  It can make patients behave more like children, who express more openly than adults, exactly what they feel.  They are less willing to please others, and more connected with   their feelings in the here and now.  That’s why sometimes a woman or man with dementia will say quite insulting things that they wouldn’t have said in the past.  We all have hidden feelings like this, but we have learned to hide them, to be appropriate.  But Alzheimer’s patients increasingly forget how to hide them.

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