Reading, listening & viewing
|
Reading, listening & viewing
This page keeps you up to date with what we are enjoying in the way of books, films, radio broadcasts etc
We are also keen to hear about what you are finding useful and inspiring. Email us so that word gets around!
|
|
And still the music plays: Stories of people with dementia
Graham Stokes 2008
London: Hawker £9.99
Graham Stokes is a clinical psychologist with long experience of working with people with dementia. In this beautifully produced volume he tells 22 real life stories from his practice.
The overall message of the book is a positive and powerful one: that people with dementia remain people, and are deserving of our consideration and respect at all times. There are occasions when Stokes encapsulates very signficant truths in simple language. For example:
The authority, simplicity and reassurance of the disease model offers us all the opportunity to seek sanctuary in a culture where we never have to question, or be questioned about, our own practice. (p.56)
How often do we hear people with dementia pleading to go home? By 'home' they do necessarily mean a physical place - often the word is used as a metaphor to express a desperate need to be out of harm's way and safe again. (p.80-1)
It has to be admitted that Stokes is not a natural writer, however, so sometimes the construction of the sentences and tales seems a little clumsy. Also, he has difficulty surmounting the twin hurdles of usually being called in as a consultant only when things have gone badly wrong, and despite his intervention, the trajectory of all these stories is towards death. In the best pieces here one is less aware of the limitations. This is certainly a book to be dipped into rather than read straight through, and it is also probably of most interest to staff and relatives than the general reader.
|
|
Two new films
We can highly recommend two recent films.
The first is called The Savages but it seems only to be on the art house circuit.
The title suggests something bloodthirsty but it is in fact the name of a family. Lenny Savage is getting very confused, and when his partner dies suddenly his children, Wendy and Jon, both of whom have always had a difficult relationship with him, have to make a decision about his future. They find a nursing home, where he eventually dies.
We don't get very far into the mind or perspective of Lenny, but we do see the conflicting perspectives of Wendy and Jon, their ambivalence towards Lenny, and also the occasions when they are overcome with emotion about what they have done. We also get insights into the relationship betweeen Lenny and his carers, and this extends to an illuminating and touching episode between one of the care staff and Wendy.
The film is very naturalistic in style - the chipped and worn ordinariness of everyday life is beautifully portrayed. And as well as tugging at the heart, it is also very funny. However, it is far too honest to have hit America or the UK big-time.
You can find out more about The Savages and see clips here.
|
|
The other film is French and is on general release. Its title is The Diving Bell and the Butterfly .
It features Elle magazine editor, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who has had a severe stroke which leaves him with Locked-in Syndrome, only available to communicate by using one eye. The film is based on Bauby's book of the same title, which was written in the months following his stroke, and was dictated to members of staff through a painstaking system developed by his speech therapist.
The film successfully manages the almost impossible task of transferring to the screen Bauby's descriptions and reflections on this profound transition, especially the growing importance to him of imagination and memory.
We see a major part of the action from Bauby's point of view. It is an astonishing feat of film-making, and as well as being beautiful, it provides many insights into living with a disability.
There is plenty to reflect on in relation to the subject of communication with persons with dementia too.
You can find out more about the film and see clips
here.
|
|
Alzheimer's from the Inside Out
Richard Taylor 2007
Baltimore, MD: Health Professions Press
Dr Richard Taylor is a psychologist who was diagnosed with dementia 5 years ago, and this is his first book. It is made up of about 80 short pieces (2 or 3 pages which Richard explains is a day's work at the pace he now writes).
They are lively, opinionated and clever, and circle various topics rather than develop them. Like Graham Stokes' book described above, it is a book to dip into rather than to read straight through.
If you do dip in, you can pull out certain plums! Here are two examples:
It is amazing to ponder the possibility of missing the ultimate unique moment of my life, my death, because I have no words to describe it, or appreciate it. (p.56)
If you can't know if I'm hot or cold, or both, or neither, how will you know if my spirit is strong or weak? (p.80-1)
Some of the titles are as thought-provoking as the articles. For example:
Disabling Enablers
Drifting Away From My Head and into My Heart
If It Talks Like an It and Gets Lost Like an It, Is It
an It?
Am I to Be My Spouse's Son?
Whatever Happened to Hope?
You can find out more about Richard and his work on his own website.
Victoria
Presented by Dulcinea Langfelder & Co and based on a text by Charles Fariala
At last a theatrical production which gives an exciting glimpse of both the challenges and opportunities created by dementia!
Dulcinea Langfelder is a Canadian actor/mime artist/dancer and singer, and this year she brought her theatre company to the Ediburgh Festival Fringe.
She plays the role of Victoria, an older woman with dementia, and in this astonishly inventive production explores many dimensions of the condition. She dances with her wheelchair, banters with her carer, speaks to and through a puppet, hands out medication and pills to members of the audience, and travels through the years and her memories.
The performance ranges from hilarity to pathos, from the prosaic to the ethereal, and achieves grace and simplicity at the same time as using a high level of human and technical skill.
Few people touched by dementia could fail to be moved, provoked and enthralled by it.
You can find out more about Dulcinea and her company here.
|
|
|
|
