The introduction to Forget Memory sets the scene for the entire book “Dementia is hard, but it needn't be this hard”. The book is a manual about creative projects and people; instilling hope and positivity for living and working with dementia and Alzheimer's, inspiring new ways of thinking about how we respond to diagnosis and treatment, to enable “shared communication and meaningful human interaction”.
The book opens with an overview of existing cultural beliefs and media portrayals of dementia and Alzheimer's, followed by a chapter exploring the meaning of memory. The remainder is about creative projects in the U.S.A; for example, in New York City, a theatre piece named “To whom I may Concern”, devised and performed by people with dementia, and an oral history project called “StoryCorps”, which collects life stories from a specially constructed booth visited by people who tell their life stories to each other. One participant, Mel, only had one story to tell “which he repeated over and over again for 40 minutes. It made the facilitators a little anxious. But he was so happy”. Basting also writes about her founding work “TimeSlips” in Milwaukee, which is “a group storytelling process that encourages people to imagine rather then remember”. In the Duplex Planet project in Boston, the facilitator is specifically interested in fragments rather than whole stories. The works include dance, photography, theatre and visual arts.
The essential thread of the book is story; life stories or fictional stories, and in the text we meet and relate to many people telling their stories. What is lovely about reading Forget Memory is that, as the reader, I forgot about the difficulty of dementia and enjoyed the journey of meeting the people – participants, artists and facilitators – contained on every page. Basting writes about relating as being one of the primary ways of connecting to people with dementia. In the book I felt that I had related to each person through his or her story/experience that was retold here. Basting suggests that “relationships with a person with dementia are reciprocal.”
Do not expect a scientific-based thesis of dementia and Alzheimer's in this book. It is a celebration of life and creativity, a declaration that this still remains even when, through dementia, other elements of a person's life become restricted. A quote from “Mnemonic”, a play by Theatre de Complicité, starts the first chapter:
‘But what I am getting at is that re-membering is essentially not only an act of retrieval, but a creative thing, it happens in the moment; it's an act, an act . . . . of the imagination’.
At the end of the book Basting touches upon the approaches of the “medical model” and the “artistic process model” to Alzheimer's and dementia. I would have liked to read about more about the differences and ways forward of the two working together; however, she identifies the lack of statistical evidence for creative work, which prevents policy-makers from funding these approaches in favor of the scientific and pharmacological. This highlighted for me the need for evidence-based research in all areas of treatment.
This book challenges the dreaded stigma attached to dementia by advocating new ways of thinking, and illustrates this with successful projects across the U.S.A. It is an idealistic book, and maybe that's what is needed at this time. What I was left wondering about was whether the same book could be written about work in the U.K.: do we have such projects happening here?
