On Vanishing
Alzheimer’s disease, Houdini, and America’s invisible caregivers
voila!
I have decided for the following reasons to take my own life. This is a decision taken in a normal state of mind and is fully considered. I have Alzheimer's disease and do not want to let it progress any further. I do not want to put my family or myself through the agony of this terrible disease.The New York Times
Thanatron
he
especially
Kitwood argued that care settings shaped by malignant social psychology can actually accelerate neurological decline. He critiqued the “standard paradigm” of dementia that blames only the organic progression of the dementing disease for the decline that sufferers experience. The silent, stigmatizing partner in the disease’s dynamic—that is, the cultural bigotry against both cognitive impairment and old age—gets off scot-free.
He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.
Lynn Casteel Harper is a Baptist minister, chaplain, and essayist. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Kenyon Review online, The Huffington Post, New Delta Review, CALYX, and elsewhere. “On Vanishing” is part of her book-in-progress, When I Have Dementia, which received a Deming Fund grant. She lives in Greenville, South Carolina. lynncasteelharper.wordpress.com
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