Dementia

Mind, Meaning, and the Person

Edited by Julian Hughes, Stephen Louw, and Steven R Sabat

International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry

Includes an introductory chapter setting the scene for an understanding of dementia and of the background philosophical thought, enabling those from either philosophy or psychiatry to appreciate the issues in the other discipline.
Includes case histories and personal accounts from those with dementia, giving the reader an insight into the reality of this illness
Juxtaposes philosophical analysis and clinical experience, presenting a unique overview of the issues that is stimulating and allows the philosophical perspectives and those of practitioners to be mutually informing

Dementia

Mind, Meaning, and the Person

Edited by Julian Hughes, Stephen Louw, and Steven R Sabat

International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry

Description

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.

Dementia

Mind, Meaning, and the Person

Edited by Julian Hughes, Stephen Louw, and Steven R Sabat

International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry

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

Dementia

Mind, Meaning, and the Person

Edited by Julian Hughes, Stephen Louw, and Steven R Sabat

International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry

Author Information

Edited by Julian Hughes, Consultant 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, and Steven R Sabat, Professor of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington D.C, USA

Contributors:

F Brian Allen, St Nicholas Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Carmelo Aquilina, Queen's Resource Centre, Croydon, UK
Michael Bavidge, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Ron L P Berghmans,
Harry Cayton, Department of Health, London, UK
Linda Clare, School of Health Studies, University of Bradford, UK
Peter G Coleman, University of Southampton, Southampton General Hospital, UK
Murna Downs, School of Health Studies, University of Bradford, UK
Joan M Fordyce, Canterbury, Victoria, Australia
Julian C Hughes, POAS, North Tyneside General Hospital, North Shields, UK
Harry Lesser, Centre for Philosophy, University of Manchester, UK
Stephen J Louw, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
E Jonathan Lowe, Department of Philosophy, University of Durham, UK
Michael Luntley, Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
John McMillan, Philosophy Department, University of Hull, UK
Jenny Mackenzie, School of Health Studies, University of Bradford, UK
Eric Matthews, Department of Philosophy, University of Aberdeen, UK
Catherine Oppenheimer, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, UK
Stephen G Post, Department of Bioethics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA
Jennifer Radden, Philosophy Department, University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA
Steven R Sabat, Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA
Lisa Snyder, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, USA
Tim Thornton, Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
Guy A M Widdershoven, Dept of Healthcare Ethics & Philosophy, University of Maastricht, The Netherlands

Dementia

Mind, Meaning, and the Person

Edited by Julian Hughes, Stephen Louw, and Steven R Sabat

International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry

Reviews and Awards

"Accessibly written by leading figures in dementia care, psychiatry, and philosophy, the book presents a unique examination of an illness that will affect our lives directly or indirectly and promotes a person-centered approach to dementia care. The book is recommended for a broad audience of health care providers and family caregivers." - Helen Lavretsky MD, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 69:8

"...this book constitutes a unique and valuable contribution to the field, contextualizing understandings of selfhood and identity in dementia in a broad philosophical and theological literature. ...his collection of chapters is bound to inform and challenge readers of the Dementia journal to think broadly about both understandings of dementia and of personal identity more generally." - Dementia 6(2),

"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