Douwe Draaisma
‘A sort of staying’

Using examples from literature and photography, Douwe Draaisma, lecturer in the history of psychology at the University of Groningen, has sketched the meaning that Alzheimer’s Disease has in terms of the experiences of both the patient as well as his family and friends. In his view, Alzheimer’s begins and ends with a paradox: at the outset the so-called prospective memory is affected, while at the end everything which the person recollects of what he had once been has gone. Initially it’s like absent-mindedness, making you forget what you were about to do, where you were going to, what was supposed to happen. With increasing loss of memory, however, the experiences and the qualities that have made someone that one particular person disappear. Someone with Alzheimer’s is still physically present, but is no longer living amongst his loved ones.