This thesis explores the experience of dementia as recounted by family carers and people with the early experience of dementia. Between October, 1992 and May, 1996 sixty four semi-structured interviews were conducted with family carers of people with dementia using a modified grounded theory approach. Constant comparative analysis of the data led to the emergence of a five stage integrated scheme to explain their experiences, namely: Recognising the Need (1); Taking it On (2); Working Through It (3); Reaching the End (4); and A New Beginning (5), with critical junctures attached to each stage which either locked the carer in, or moved the carer through, the model. A second phase of data collection comprised eleven interviews with ten people with the early experience of dementia and their family carers. Analysis of these data resulted in the emergence of the stage of Keeping it Hidden with its supporting strategies: Closing Down; Regrouping; and Covering your Tracks which help to explain how people with early dementia manage their changing cognitive abilities. Following a theoretical integration of the two phases of data collection the process of 'working' emerged in three forms, i.e. Working Apart; Working Together; and Working Alone to explain movement between the above two models. Transcending the data, the study also generated the linking scheme of Maintaining Involvement to help explain the dynamics of dementia. The 'fit and grab' of this linking scheme was subjected to preliminary empirical scrutiny via a third series of interviews with six carers of people with dementia. It is suggested that the grounded theory emerging from this study helps to explain the shared experience of dementia, while also having implications for policy and practice which are briefly explored in the concluding chapter, together with some of the methodological implications and limitations of the study.