The Forgetting: Understanding Alzheimer’s: A Biography of a Disease - Hardcover

Shenk, David

4.09

440 ratings by Goodreads

9780002571746: The Forgetting: Understanding Alzheimer’s: A Biography of a Disease

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002571749 ISBN 13: 9780002571746

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2002

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With a Foreword by ADAM PHILLIPS – A haunting literary and scientific examination of Alzheimer’s disease and the race to find a cure. Similar in tone to the AIDS classic And The Band Plays On.

‘A truly remarkable book – the definitive work on Alzheimer's, it seems to me, both in social and medical terms. The Forgetting is incisive, humane, never ponderous, full of dry humor, brilliantly written with quiet, unpretentious authority. As a layman with personal experience of 'caring' for an Alzheimer's sufferer I am well aware of the stages of the disease and its prognosis and ending. Shenk is excellent on all these, and in his reflections on memory and the individual, and the individual's response to the progress of the disease. I can't imagine a book on Alzheimer's being better researched and understood, or presented with greater sympathy.’ John Bayley

In 1906 Alois Alzheimer dissected and examined the cerebral cortex of Auguste D’s brain and became the first scientist in medical history to link a specific brain pathology to behavioural changes. The disease named after him, turns otherwise active and healthy people into living ghosts. It is a rare condition for those in their 40s and 50s but 10% of the 65+ population suffers from it and 50% of the 85+. It is longevity’s revenge and as the baby boom generation drifts into its elderly years the number of Alzheimer’s victims is expected to quadruple, making it the fastest-growing disease in developed countries.

As Adam Phillips writes in his forword ‘'This remarkable book will radically change our notions of looking after people and our assumptions about independence. Out of fear of mortality we have idealised health and youth and competence. The Forgetting reminds us among many other things that there is more to life than that.”

Shenk’s history of Alzheimer’s is both poignant and scientific, grounded by the fundamental belief that memory forms the basis of our selves, our souls, and the meaning in our lives.

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Review:

‘The Forgetting is completely absorbing, fascinating, the best of writing, thought provoking, socially important and imperative to read, with the narrative pull of a well-written murder mystery.’ Amy Tan

‘A poignant portrayal of a dark illness that robs our very soul. Yet Shenk provides a vivid glimpse of the future, how new science may ultimately remedy this devastating malady.’ Jerome Groopman, Harvard Medical School

‘A beautifully rendered portrait of a terrible illness, David Shenk’s book is immensely absorbing and informative, yet also quite touching.’ Todd Feinberg, Yarmon Alzheimer’s Disease Centre

From the Publisher:

David Shenk has won first prize in the Popular Medicine category of the 2002 BMA MEDICAL BOOK C0MPETITION for his book THE FORGETTING - UNDERSTANDING ALZHEIMER'S: THE NEW EPIDEMIC.

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