Article published In: Pragmatics of Active Social Inclusion
Edited by Yoshiko Matsumoto and Heidi E. Hamilton
[Pragmatics and Society 15:1] 2024
► pp. 140–156
“Let’s Just Forget It!”
Discourse of inclusion in a Japanese nursing home
Published online: 22 December 2023
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.23057.ham
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.23057.ham
Abstract
Using recorded interactions between nursing home residents and care staff, this study demonstrates interactional
strategies of younger recreation workers during a weekly recreational activity named Tea Time Talk that serves to reduce
generational as well as epistemic gaps with the residents. This study focuses on how older residents’ reference to memory loss or
forgetfulness is deindividuated and trivialized by humorously framing it as something the participants can forget together. I will
claim that such intergenerational interactions on a regular basis help create solidarity between the residents and nursing home
staff, as well as maintain dignity of and respect towards the older residents who often experience a sense of exclusion from the
‘here and now’ which affects their life satisfaction at the end-of-life stage.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Data
- 3.Painful self-disclosure and rapport building
- 4.Analysis
- 4.1“I only know my eto”
- 4.2“Let’s make that the reason!”
- 4.3‘I’m too happy to remember.’
- 5.Discussion
- Note
References
References (24)
Amatsu, Eiko, and Mayumi Nakata. 1998. “Rojin hoken shisetsu ni okeru chihosei rojin to kea sutaffu no sogosayo ni mirareru zure no
tokucho [Characteristic discrepancy in interactions between demented elders
and care staffs in geriatric health service facilities].” Ronen
Kangogaku [Gerontological
Nursing] 3 (1): 52–63.
Brown, Penelope, and Steven Levinson. 1987. Politeness:
Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cabinet Office. 2017. “Annual Report
on the Ageing Society FY2017.” Annual Report on the Ageing
Society. Last modified June 17,
2017. [URL]
. 2022. “Annual Report
on the Ageing Society FY2022.” Annual Report on the Ageing
Society. Last modified June 14,
2022. [URL]
Cook, Haruko Minegishi. 1992. “Meanings of
Non-referential Indexes: A Case Study of the Japanese Sentence-Final Particle
Ne.” Text 12 (4): 507–39.
Coupland, Nikolas, Justine Coupland, Howard Giles, Karen Henwood, and John Wiemann. 1988. “Elderly
Self-Disclosure: Interactional and Intergroup Issues.” Language and
Communication 8 (2): 109–33.
Davis, Boyd H., and Cynthia Bernstein. 2005. “Talking
in the Here and Now: Reference and Politeness in Alzheimer
Conversation.” In Alzheimer Talk, Text and Context: Enhancing
Communication, ed. by Boyd H. Davis, 60–86. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Dijkstra, Katinka, Michelle Bourgeois, Geoffrey Petrie, Lou Burgio, and Rebecca Allen-Burge. 2002. “My
Recaller is on Vacation: Discourse Analysis of Nursing-Home Residents with Dementia.” Discourse
Processes 33 (1): 53–76.
Guendouzi, Jacqueline, and Nicole Müller. 2006. Approaches
to Discourse in Dementia. Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Guendouzi, Jacqueline, and Anna Pate. 2014. “Interactional
and Cognitive Resources in Dementia: A Perspective from Politeness
Theory.” In Dialogue and Dementia: Cognitive and Communicative
Resources for Engagement, ed. by Robert W. Schrauf and Nicole Müller, 121–46. New York: Psychology Press.
Hamilton, Heidi. 2019. Language,
Dementia and Meaning Making: Navigating Challenges of Cognition and Face in Everyday
Life. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave MacMillan.
Health and Welfare Bureau for the
Elderly. 2016. Long-Term Care Insurance System of
Japan. November 2016. [URL]
Kinoshita, Midori. 2004. “Chihosei koreisha tono kaiwa no kanosei ni kansuru ichi shiron: Ichi jirei tono kaiwa ni okeru hatsuwarensa no
bunseki kara [A study of the possibility of conversation with older people
with dementia: From an analysis of utterance sequence in a conversation with a subject]. Studia
Humanitatis 21: 33–50.
Kitwood, Tom. 1997. Dementia
Reconsidered: The Person Comes First. Milton Keys, England: Open University Press.
Matsumoto, Yoshiko. 2005. “‘We’ll
be Dead by Then!’: Comical Self-Disclosure by Elderly Japanese
Women.” In Proceedings of the 30th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley
inguistics Society, ed. by Marc Ettlinger, Nicolas Fleisher, and Mischa Park-Doob, 268–279. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Linguistics Society.
. 2009. “Dealing
with Life Changes: Humour in Painful Self-Disclosures by Elderly Japanese Women.” Ageing and
Society 291: 929–952.
. 2011. “Painful
to Playful: Quotidian Frames in the Conversational Discourse of Older Japanese Women.” Language
in Society 401: 591–616.
Ouchi, Yasuyoshi, Hiromi Rakugi, Hidenori Arai, Masahiro Akishita, Hideki Ito, Kenji Toba, and Ichiro Kai. 2017. “Redefining
the Elderly as Aged 75 Years and Older: Proposal from the Joint Committee of Japan Gerontological Society and the Japan
Geriatrics Society.” Geriatrics & Gerontology
International 17 (7): 1045–47.
Takayama, Shigeko, and Nobuko Mizutani. 2001. “Chutodo judo chihosho koreisha ni nokosareta genjituninshiki no chikara ni tsuite no kenkyu: Kangosha tono taiwa
kara [A study of residual ability by which reality is recognized by the
elderly with moderate to severe dementia: From a conversation with a nurse].” Journal of Japan
Academy of Nursing
Science 21 (2): 46–55.
Tsutsui, Takao, Naoko Muramatsu, and Sadanori Higashino. 2014. “Changes
in Perceived Filial Obligation Norms Among Coresident Family Caregivers in Japan.” The
Gerontologist 54 (5): 797–807.
Yamada, Kiyomi, and Kimiaki Nishida. 2007. “Kaigo sutaffu ga ninchisho kanja ni mochiiru comyunikeshon giho no tokucho to sono kanren
yoin” [Characteristics and related factors of nursing assistants’
communication strategies for persons with dementia]. Journal of Japan Society of Nursing
Research 30 (4): 85–91.
Yatomi, Naomi. 1996. “Chihosei
rojin no komyunikeshon kodo.” The Japanese Journal of Nursing
Research 29 (3): 71–80.