What is the problem with dementia? We have heard many messages that there is an urgent problem with dementia. There are metaphors of tsunamis of ageing people developing forgetfulness, and statistics predicting the size of this tsunami. Strategies are developed to promote ‘ageing in place’, that is, to care for people at home, so as not to flood institutions and make healthcare costs explode. Millions of dollars, euros and yens are spent on research to find the cure for Alzheimer's disease, as well as to develop the technologies that will accommodate the care for the increasing amount of people already suffering from it. And there are ink-black stories about the great fear for Alzheimer's disease as the exemplification of losing one's humanity: a loss of cognition, autonomy and control over one's bowels and bladder. This ‘fourth age imaginary’ predicts a ‘sailing into darkness’ of what was once a human subject (Driessen, 2019).

These are ‘loud’ stories, the authors of this book claim. They scream alarm and collapse, but their understanding of ‘the problem of dementia’ is at the same time very diverse. The problem of dementia, this book argues, is, paradoxically, both overdetermined and underdefined. Christine Ceci and Mary Ellen Purkis add a quieter story, one that may take some more concentrated listening, but that digs deeper when one wants to get a grip on what the problem with dementia might be and what kind of help might relieve it. The book focuses on the problem of sustaining families at home, in order to delay institutionalization. It does so with another paradox: these are common problems, but they are not the same problems for everyone. Ceci and Purkis want to know what the ‘problems of dementia’, plural, become, when regarding them from amidst the very different practices through which they are addressed and lived. They side with four families living at home, and accompany them on their visits to formal caregivers. By sharing their lives, they get the ‘inside view’ of what it means to live with dementia at home, how the problems shift and are handled, and how formal care organizations try to help.