Overview

Dementia is an illness that raises important questions about our own attitudes to illness and aging. It also raises very important issues beyond the bounds of dementia to do with how we think of ourselves as people - fundamental questions about personal identity. Is the person with dementia the same person he or she was before? Is the individual with dementia a person at all? In a striking way, dementia seems to threaten the very existence of the self. This book brings together philosophers and practitioners to explore the conceptual issues that arise in connection with this increasingly common illness. Drawing on a variety of philosophers such as Descartes, Locke, Hume, Wittgenstein, the authors explore the nature of personal identity in dementia. They also show how the lives and selfhood of people with dementia can be enhanced by attention to their psychosocial and spiritual environment. Throughout, the book conveys a strong ethical message, arguing in favour of treating people with dementia with all the dignity they deserve as human beings. The book covers a range of topics, stretching from talk of basic biology to talk of a spiritual understanding of people with dementia. Accessibly written by leading figures in psychiatry and philosophy, the book presents a unique and long overdue examination of an illness that features in so many of our lives.

Full Product Details

Author:   Julian Hughes (Conultant and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer in Old Age Psychiatry, Northumbria Healthcare, NHS Trust and Institute for Ageing and Health, University of Newcastle, UK) ,  Stephen Louw (Consultant Physician in Medicine and Geriatric Medicine, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) ,  Steven R Sabat (Professor of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.10cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 24.20cm
Weight:   0.619kg
ISBN:  

9780198566144

ISBN 10:   019856614
Pages:   328
Publication Date:   08 December 2005
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

1: Julian C Hughes, Stephen J Louw & Steven R Sabat: Seeing whole 2: Michael Bavidge: Ageing and human nature 3: Harry Lesser: Dementia and personal identity 4: John McMillan: Identity: self and dementia 5: Jennifer Radden & Joan M Fordyce: Into the darkness: losing identity with dementia 6: E Jonathan Lowe: Can the self disintegrate? Personal identity, psychopathology and disunities of consciousness 7: Michael Luntley: Keeping track, autobiography and the conditions for self erosion 8: Tim Thornton: The discursive turn, social constructionism and dementia 9: Carmelo Aquilina & Julian C Hughes: The return of the living dead: agency lost and found? 10: Eric Matthews: Dementia and the identity of the person 11: Guy A M Widdershoven & Ron L P Berghmans: Meaning-making in dementia: a hermeneutic perspective 12: Catherine Oppenheimer: I am, thou art: personal identity in dementia 13: F Brian Allen & Peter G Coleman: Spiritual perspectives on the person with dementia: identity and personhood 14: Stephen G Post: 'Respectare': moral respect for the lives of the deeply forgetful 15: Murna Downs, Linda Clare & Jenny Mackenzie: Understandings of dementia: explanatory models and their implications for the person with dementia and therapeutic effort 16: Lisa Snyder: Personhood and interpersonal communication in dementia 17: Harry Cayton: From childhood to childhood? Autonomy and dependence through the ages of life 18: Steven R Sabat: Mind, meaning and personhood in dementia: the effects of positioning

Reviews

The book covers not only the philosophical but also social, spiritual, ethical and practical perspectives and the negative, soul-destroying attitudes about dementia in modern society...This is a good book. It will not change base metal into gold but via a mosaic of ideas introduces a way of thinking. Ostensibly it is about dementia...about what it is to be human. British Journal of Psychiatry, Vol 190 It is clear from this collection that bodily intentionality, spiritual and religious faith, emotion and relational capacity must count as morally relevant features of the person whose self-consciousness and memory have faded. One hopes that Dementia: Mind, Meaning and the Person will inspire further philosophical quests for a more exhaustive and inclusive understanding of personhood and the application of such insights to practice. Ageing and Society

The book covers not only the philosophical but also social, spiritual, ethical and practical perspectives and the negative, soul-destroying attitudes about dementia in modern society...This is a good book. It will not change base metal into gold but via a mosaic of ideas introduces a way of thinking. Ostensibly it is about dementia...about what it is to be human. British Journal of Psychiatry, Vol 190 It is clear from this collection that bodily intentionality, spiritual and religious faith, emotion and relational capacity must count as morally relevant features of the person whose self-consciousness and memory have faded. One hopes that Dementia: Mind, Meaning and the Person will inspire further philosophical quests for a more exhaustive and inclusive understanding of personhood and the application of such insights to practice. Ageing and Society this book will challenge the foundations of caring strategies and practices. International Psychogeriatrics, Volume 19/4

Author Information

Dr Julian C. Hughes is currently the Chair of the Philosophy Special Interest Group of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Dr Stephen J. Louw is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of South Africa, of the Royal College of Physicians of London, and of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. He is currently Vice Chair of the UK Network for Clinical Ethics Committees. He was formerly Professor of Geriatric Medicine in the University of Cape Town. Professor Steven R. Sabat is Associate Editor of Dementia: The International Journal of Social Research and Practice. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Greater Washington D.C. chapter of the Alzheimer's Disease Association and has been a co-leader of a support group for people with Alzheimer's Disease. He is currently Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University.

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