Self, Senility, and Alzheimer's Disease in Modern America

Jesse F. Ballenger is an assistant professor in the Science, Technology, and Society Program at Pennsylvania State University and coeditor of Concepts of Alzheimer Disease: Biological, Clinical, and Cultural Perspectives (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Stereotype of Senility in Late-Nineteenth-Century America2. Beyond the Characteristic Plaques and Tangles3. From Senility to Successful Aging4. The Renaissance of Pathology5. The Health Politics of Anguish6. The Preservation of Selfhood in the Culture of DementiaNotesIndex

Both science and history blend in a survey of aging and dementia, making for a broad discussion not just of changing American attitudes and culture, but changing health system responses. California Bookwatch This work is a major contribution to the history of dementia and Alzheimer disease. JAMA 2006 Ballenger has done the field a great service in tracing the historical roots of this problem. -- Benjamin T. Mast PsycCRITIQUES 2006 An important book that deserves a wide readership. -- Gerald N. Grob Journal of American History 2006 Give[s] the reader a vibrant and provocative account of how to think about Alzheimer's disease in anything but settled or conventional terms. -- Martha Holstein Healthcare and Aging Newsletter 2007 A substantial contribution to our knowledge... We are grateful to Ballenger for making a contribution to creating such wisdom and helping advance our culture's moral imagination. -- Danny George and Peter Whitehouss Medical Humanities Review 2005 A powerful, lucid account... Ballenger can be congratulated for a truly fascinating exploration of aging and senility. This book will appeal to physicians and historians, and the author (or the publishers) should consider marketing it to a broader public audience. -- Stephen Casper Medical History 2008 Ballenger aims not only to provide a cultural history of the disease but also to make ethical and epistemological claims about whether a human being with advanced Alzheimer's disease is still a person. These ambitions impose unusually high scholarly standards. Ballenger is up to the task. -- Thomas R. Cole American Historical Review 2007 A lucid and thoughtful history and a timely contribution... will appeal to readers from all professional backgrounds. -- Stephen Katz Ageing and Society 2008 This revealing and informative account is worth reading. -- Chris Ball History of Psychiatry 2008 Ballenger has written a persuasive account of a complicated subject, confronting the problem of dementia compassionately but unflinchingly... His writing is clear, graceful, and unburdened by jargon. This book deserves to be widely read by both historians and people dealing directly with dementia, including health care providers and family members. -- Lisa Boult Bulletin of the History of Medicine 2010