Narrative, Objects, and the Construction of the Self

Abstract

Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease know no boundaries. While this much is known, there is little beyond the medicalization of onset to provide insights into individuals instantly marginalized by a diagnosis with no future. The role of objects and storytelling in supporting the well-being and engagement of those dealing with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) has recently become an accepted strategy in non-medical interventions for the disease. Many care facilities, day programs, and associations providing support for ADRD offer reminiscence and story sharing as regular activities. Building on research undertaken to explore how objects can be used as memory cues to evoke a memory of a person, place, event, or artefact in an individual’s personal narrative, this paper makes a case for mobilizing object memoir to empower the voices of the cognitively disabled. It argues for respecting the individual storyteller, not for the person he or she once was or may become in the future, but as someone with a unique identity and an inherent value as she or he is in the present. Object memoir as a readily invoked activity not only adds to the self-worth and social efficacy of an individual with ADRD, but also fosters meaningful connection with family, friends, and other caregivers who may be experiencing the loss of their own stories as memories of a shared past fade or disappear.