Dementia and Graphic Medicine: Beyond the Living Death Narrative

Dementia and Graphic Medicine explores how graphic medicine–through memoirs by caregivers and families–offers nuanced understandings and humane representations of individuals with dementia that restore their personhood, dignity, and agency.

Dementia, a neurodegenerative condition, often reduces individuals to their impairments, overlooking their personhood. This book challenges this, critiquing the influence of mind-body dualism, biomedicine on personhood, and the institutional dynamics that perceive those living with dementia as a “living death.” It examines the transformative potential of graphic medicine in enabling dementia caregivers to visually articulate their interpretations of the complex experiences of individuals with dementia. Utilizing Tom Kitwood’s concept of personhood as a framework, the study uncovers a diverse range of subjective experiences and proposes an alternative to the biomedicalization of dementia, promoting a more compassionate and humanistic approach to caregiving. Additionally, it investigates how non-medical conceptualizations and alternative social responses to dementia challenge existing hierarchical models and stereotypes in dementia caregiving.

Bridging dementia studies, graphic medicine, and health humanities, this work provides scholars, practitioners, and caregivers with innovative insights for compassionate understanding, inclusive care, and social change. The book will also be suitable for readers in visual studies and narrative medicine.