The zombie can be described by the work of feminist disability scholar, Susan Wendel: “Something more powerful than being in a different body is at work. Suffering caused by the body, and the inability to control the body, are despised, pitied and above all, feared. This fear, experienced individually, is also deeply embedded in our culture," (1989, p. 112). 

We don't just fear the bodily changes that are associated with Alzheimer's, we also fear the consequence of complete dehumanization that we view as a symptom of Alzheimer's. However, I don't think a disease itself can cause dehumanization. It is a quality that we decide to collectively assign to those who do not meet our standards of personhood that are often based in independence and the ability to recognize others. 

To explain how medical and cultural perspectives continuously influence and reinforce one another’s ideas of Alzheimer’s, Behuniak draws from social construction theory which seeks to understand the process of how subjective ideas become culturally objective facts (Berger & Luckman, 1976). I must stress that this does not argue that Alzheimer’s disease is socially constructed rather than a biological process, but instead demonstrates how the language we use to describe Alzheimer’s becomes so culturally significant that subjective language based on opinions of personal experience develops into objective and institutionalized facts that are applied to everyone living with the disease. Unconditionally negative experiences in Alzheimer’s caregiving journeys become talked about as inescapable ‘facts’ about Alzheimer’s that are a secured fate for all patients and their caregivers (Sabat, 2003). Dekker (2018) theorizes that these constructions lead to the belief that a life with Alzheimer’s is not a life worth living. This negatively impacts people with Alzheimer’s, their quality of care, Alzheimer’s caregivers, family members of those with Alzheimer’s, and people who are predisposed to developing Alzheimer’s later in life.