The diseased brain and the failing mind : dementia in science, medicine and literature of the long twentieth century / Martina Zimmermann.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zimmermann, Martina (Researcher in health humanities), author.

Series:

Explorations in science and literature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dementia in literature.

Literature and science--History--20th century.

Literature and science.

Literature, Modern--20th century--History and criticism.

Literature, Modern.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (285 pages)

Distribution:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020

Other Title:

Diseased brain and the failing mind

Place of Publication:

London England : New York Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.

Summary:

"The Diseased Brain and the Failing Mind charts changing cultural understandings of dementia and alzheimer's disease in scientific and cultural texts across the 20th Century. Reading a range of texts from the US, UK, Europe and Japan, the book examines how the language of dementia - regarding the loss of identity, loss of agency, loss of self and life - is rooted in scientific discourse and expressed in popular and literary texts. Following changing scientific understandings of dementia, the book also demonstrates how cultural expressions of the experience and dementia have fed back into the way medical institutions have treated dementia patients"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title Page

Dedication Page

Series Page

Title Page

Contents

Acknowledgements

Series Preface

1 Introduction

Alzheimer's disease: A twenty-first-century first-world scare

Dementia in history

Methodology: Literature and science

Overview

Part I The organic paradigm

2 From brain inspection to cell death

The Forsyte Saga: The cultural image of dementia in the fin-de-siècle family novel

Dementia and memory loss in science, medicine and literature before 1880

Auguste D. and Johann F.: Alzheimer's clinical cases and histological research

The case

The discourse of degeneration

The definition of the disease

The reaction to the definition of the disease

Degeneration: The old and new narrative of loss and decline in medico-scientific literature on dementia and Alzheimer's disease

There Were No Windows: The patient's illness experience in the modernist novel

Part II The ageing perspective

3 Culture shapes politics shapes science

Researching old age: From medical science to old-age psychiatry

At The Jerusalem: Dementia defines the elderly in 1960s new realist fiction

4 The loss of self in healthcare and cultural discourse

Caregiver guides: Helpers in the face of loss and decline

Out of Mind: The postmodern novel delves into the mind of the patient

Part III The cognitive picture

5 The narrative of loss in a growing biomedical and literary marketplace of Alzheimer's disease

Neurodegeneration: The biochemical narrative of lost molecules, pathways and communication

On genes and genealogy: The patient as specimen, carrier and type in research and popular science

Death in Slow Motion: Past identities, lost plots and old age in caregiver life-writing

6 Neurotechnologies and narrative examine the failing mind

The visual exploration of the brain and fascination with the mind

The Dying of the Light: Detective fiction claims back patient authority

Who Will I Be When I Die? Patient life-writing around the year 2000

Part IV The whole-person prospects

7 The dichotomy of Alzheimer's disease

Immunization hope and hype: The patient as non-responder

La guardiana di Ulisse: The patient beyond forgetting in children's literature and adult fiction of the new century

Alzheimer mon amour: Healthcare changes and patient personality in contemporary caregiver memoirs

We Are Not Ourselves: The cultural image of Alzheimer's disease in the twenty-first-century bildungsroman

8 Conclusion

Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

Index Page

Copyright Page

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9781350121829

1350121827

OCLC:

1153339771