Renée L. Beard
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781479800117
- eISBN:
- 9781479855377
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479800117.003.0005
- Subject:
- Social Work, Health and Mental Health
This chapter depicts the subjective experience of being cognitively evaluated for Alzheimer’s at specialty clinics, which arguably amounts to a degradation ceremony. Drawing on medical sociology’s ...
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This chapter depicts the subjective experience of being cognitively evaluated for Alzheimer’s at specialty clinics, which arguably amounts to a degradation ceremony. Drawing on medical sociology’s long history of research on the effect and socially contingent nature of various medical conditions, technologies, and the sciences more broadly, findings demonstrate the myriad factors influencing the interactions between science and its technologies on the one hand, and people seeking medical care on the other. The common experience of cognitive evaluation is one of feeling exposed, confused, and overwhelmed. Everyday personal struggles to manage awkward and foreign symptoms are mirrored by the environment in which patients find themselves evaluated and the highly standardized battery of tests and clinical interactions they experience. Individuals being evaluated thus utilize various strategies to minimize social awkwardness and normalize clinical interactions.Less
This chapter depicts the subjective experience of being cognitively evaluated for Alzheimer’s at specialty clinics, which arguably amounts to a degradation ceremony. Drawing on medical sociology’s long history of research on the effect and socially contingent nature of various medical conditions, technologies, and the sciences more broadly, findings demonstrate the myriad factors influencing the interactions between science and its technologies on the one hand, and people seeking medical care on the other. The common experience of cognitive evaluation is one of feeling exposed, confused, and overwhelmed. Everyday personal struggles to manage awkward and foreign symptoms are mirrored by the environment in which patients find themselves evaluated and the highly standardized battery of tests and clinical interactions they experience. Individuals being evaluated thus utilize various strategies to minimize social awkwardness and normalize clinical interactions.
