Some Psychological Aspects of Senile Dementia

Summing up the discussion concerning senile dementia in terms of personality, the following symptoms and signs are noted.
1) Passivity and defensiveness to one's surroundings. The Rorschach Test indicates that the dementia group reflects an apparent weakness in accommodating oneself to the immediate environment. This is to say that they have difficulty in associating effectively with people.
2) Thinking faculties are narrowed and stereotyped. Defective information processing is also seen, but this can be said of the aged in general.
3) Lack of emotional control, passivity and inattentiveness to emotional stimuli.
4) Progressive loss of intellectual faculties. This is quite noticeable among senile dementia patients. The loss of intellectual faculties is not sudden or complete, but rather reflects a gradual erosion over a period of time. Compensatory mechanisms in the brain might be the main cause of this symptom.