Um estudo de perspectivas teórico-clínicas nas demências: sobre a relação linguagem, memória e sujeito

Abstract

Memory loss is the first and main signal of dementia diseases. The symptomatic speech manifestations are referred to in the medical e speech pathology and therapy as empty speech since although grammatically correct, speech does not convey meaning. It is said that words loose external reference. Language in such a view is nothing but behavior and vehicle of internalized concepts and information. Such a perplexing scenario is understood as caused by a neurological demage linked to a long and slow process of cerebral degeneration. The common organic-cognitive discursive trend, adopted and followed by different the two areas mentioned above, can be interpreted as a result of a steady and uniform conception of language as nomenclature (as a list of words and terms ready to represent concepts and to designate objects of the physical word). In this study not only representative essays and theoretical discussion in the areas of Medicine and Speech Therapy are examined, but also some in the field of Psychoanalysis and of Language Clinic. I depart from and try to sustain the point of view that language cannot be reduced a nomenclature. It is argued, after Saussure (1916) that language is a symbolic functioning. This study tries to shed light on the original clinical trend proposed to treat persons affected by dementia as a result of the theoretical approach adopted by researchers from the LAEL and CNPq Reseach Group: Language acquisition, language pathology and language clinic, that is supervised by Maria Francisca Lier- DeVitto and Lúcia Arantes at LAEL-PUCSPl as well as at DERDIC-PUCSP (Divisão de Educação e Reabilitação dos Distúrbios da Comunicação)