Situated Expressivity in Dementia: From Hexis to Deixis

• Applicant: Dr. Erik Norman Dzwiza-Ohlsen
• Subject Area: Theoretical Philosophy
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 534355849

The project aims to advance the field of care and therapy for individuals with dementia through philosophical conceptual and theoretical work. The main research question explores the potential of deixis to enhance interaction and communication in dementia. The project consists of three sub-goals: (1) developing a conceptual taxonomy of deixis, differentiating between verbal deixis (e.g., pronouns), corporal deixis (e.g., pointing gestures), and medial deixis (e.g., arrows); (2) investigating the therapeutic and care applications of deixis in dementia in the face of the progressive loss of orientation, memory, and language; and (3) advancing the understanding of the situatedness of human experience in general and situated expressivity in particular. Over the past three decades, a comprehensive philosophical discourse on dementia has emerged, centered around the identity of the person and the self. Within this discourse, two approaches can be distinguished: deficit-oriented and resource-oriented. The former emphasizes that deficits erode the foundations of personal identity, while the latter emphasizes that personal identity persists even in advanced stages of dementia. This research project aligns itself with the resource-oriented perspective, since it aims to enhance care and therapy. Specifically, the project bridges two resource-oriented approaches: (1) positioning theories, which analyze indexical expression in everyday conversations, and (2) embodiment theories, which conceptualize habitual (Hexis) expression as embodied long-term memory. By combining the strengths of these approaches, the project addresses two key areas in dementia research. Firstly, it highlights the significance of embodied expression in dementia in light of the progressive loss of language abilities. However, the conceptual research on corporeal deixis remains insufficient. Secondly, while (neo-)phenomenological contributions have made significant strides in understanding medial deixis, the application of these findings to dementia research has been lacking. However, the potential of medial deixis (via art, design, architecture, or technology) in the face of progressive loss of orientation and language is enormous. In sum, the project expands the scope of verbal deixis to incorporate two distinct modes of non-verbal deixis that address language and orientation loss in dementia: corporal deixis, which relates to communication in face-to-face-interaction, and medial deixis, which pertains to orientation within spatial environments. In doing so, the project facilitates a dialogue between widely discussed propositions in philosophy, cognitive science, and life science. Furthermore, through the conceptual development of situated expressivity, with specific emphasis on deixis, the project aims to derive concrete implications for nursing and therapeutic practices, as well as formulate hypotheses for future experimental testing.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants