[The late-life companion and the inanimate object of the person with senile dementia: an attempt at comprehension through a comparative study with phenomena encountered during childhood].

The thought of this work about the mad senile person's affective life concerns some almost permanent clinical establishments such as: on one hand, the existence of late-life companions and inanimate objects evoking some phenomena met during childhood: fancied companion, fetish objects. On the other hand, the existence of "behaviours" evoking those of the little child during his psycho-affective development. We have been led to study the notion of regression during the dementia process and ask ourselves about psychopathological mechanisms underlying this regression, regarded as a mechanism of narcissistic strengthening underlying the appearance of late-life companion or inanimate object. We underline in the conclusion that: on one hand, for these persons showing a deep disturbance of narcissistic economy, there is need to elaborate a relation with a narcissistic object, according to the somato-psychic deterioration level. On the other hand, the phenomena established during the dementia process, can't be assimilated to opposite distance covered by progressive movement.