Autobiographical accounts of early-onset alzheimer's disease: Obituaries of the living dead?.

摘要

The thesis was designed to gain insight into how Alzheimer's disease influences selfhood from first personal accounts of illness. The focus of the study was narrowed further by concentrating on the autobiographies of individuals diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD). The purpose of this thesis was to analyze the autobiographies of individuals with EOAD with the aim of understanding their selfhood. In this thesis I argue that, Alzheimer's disease may influence a change in self, however, the self is not lost entirely. This thesis draws on the philosophical conception of narrated self as it allows for one perpetually constructed self, whereby a change in self does not necessarily mean the self is lost entirely. Through an interpretive analysis of six autobiographical accounts of Alzheimer's, this thesis demonstrates that Alzheimer's disease influences a loss of sense of self but that autobiography enables individuals with Alzheimer's to (re)construct self.;Keywords: Early onset Alzheimer's disease, self, medical anthropology, biomedicine, illness narrative, autobiography, sense of self, narrated self.