Why am I passionate about this?
As an old age psychiatrist, I was naturally interested in dementia. But I’m also trained to doctoral level in philosophy. I’ve been both an honorary professor of philosophy of ageing (at Newcastle) and a professor of old age psychiatry (at Bristol). Whilst training in psychiatry at Oxford, I came across the work of Tom Kitwood. Subsequently, I’ve become great friends with Steve Sabat. His work and Kitwood’s brought home to me the complexity of personhood and its relevance to how we care for and think about people living with dementia. And the more you consider it, the more the notion of personhood broadens out to include citizenship and human rights.
Julian's book list on personhood and dementia
Why did Julian love this book?
I doubt it’s a mere coincidence that Cahill’s book has the same publisher as the Bartlett and O’Connor book and that it has a Foreword by Sabat. For there is a movement afoot towards broadening the way we see people living with dementia: not simply as biological beings, not solely as psychosocial, not just as citizens in the polis, but now as the bearers of rights. Because, personhood entails that people living with dementia are situated in the legal field as well as the political, and so on. Building on the work of disability rights campaigners, the case for including dementia within the purview of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is given trenchant support. Moreover, Suzanne conveys the urgency of this human rights perspective.
1 author picked Dementia and Human Rights as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
The time has come to further challenge biomedical and clinical thinking about dementia, which has for so long underpinned policy and practice. Framing dementia as a disability, this book takes a rights-based approach to expand the debate.
Applying a social constructionist lens, it builds on earlier critical perspectives by bringing together concepts including disability, social inclusion, personhood, equality, participation, dignity, empowerment, autonomy and solidarity. Launching the debate into new and exciting territory, the book argues that people living with dementia come within the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and therefore have full entitlement to all the…
- Coming soon!