Forget Memory: Creating Better Lives for People with Dementia is a book designed to share Anne Basting’s 15 years of experience as an artist, teacher, scholar, and writer. The book, which will appeal to many who confront dementia, consists of three parts. Part One examines the fear of memory loss in dementia, how memory works, and how people with dementia are impacted by the fear of memory loss and the stigma associated with dementia. Part Two discusses how dementia is portrayed in the popular media, mainly in films. In Part Three, Basting discusses 10 U.S.-based arts programs designed for people with dementia and all those who care for them. These programs support her philosophical approach to the importance of the arts in dementia care. Basting advocates the enjoyment of the present moment through the engagement of meaningful multidisciplinary activities that are person-centred. The book concludes with 12 recommendations to improve the quality of life of people with dementia.
I like the book’s title, Forget Memory, which succinctly informs us of Basting’s approach to the relevance of memory in the arts as applied to dementia care. The title immediately sets the tone and invites questions for what lies ahead: just how important is memory, and why do we really need to remember just about everything in our very busy lives? However, we still need to recognize that various types of memories do exist at various capacity levels during the progression of this medical condition and no matter how accurate the memory is, it is still a memory. Basting’s intention to reduce anxieties about memory loss can be applauded but, in reality, some parts of memory are available to be used for the longest time before entering the final stages of dementia.
In the book’s Preface, Basting suggests that professionals and concerned people, including people with dementia, are her targeted readers. If so, I find some sections of the book too complicated for people with dementia who are not academically inclined, especially the first chapter on understanding memory. The desire to include people with dementia is well intentioned, but perhaps not very realistic.
Whenever Basting includes stories from her childhood, her own family and her experience, I felt particularly drawn in. These stories made the reading highly personal and linked her background with her approach to dementia care. I found myself engaged in Part One, learning about the history of how memory has been treated over the years and the various types of memories we experience, although I did miss a discussion of how the various types of memories could impact the programs in Part Three of the book. Then, midway through Part Two, I began to question the need for discussing popular culture at this length. Although I understood the author’s intention of using films to describe how dementia is portrayed, I felt it could be shortened considerably and still achieve the same effect.
Part Three presents 10 arts programs developed for interacting with people with dementia. These programs involve song writing, dance, story telling, photography, and the visual arts. Among the programs mentioned was TimeSlips, a creative storytelling project that Basting herself developed.
Students in the field of gerontology and new facilitators in the field of creative expression programs in dementia care will find this book informative and helpful. The programs make good practical use of remaining abilities by being rooted in the present and by being person-centered – adjusting activities to the individuals. It would have been of great value if Basting had mentioned whether or not these programs were tested, such as the testing of her own program in Impact of TimeSlips, a Creative Expression Intervention on Nursing-Home Residents with Dementia and Their Professional Caregivers. This kind of information could have inspired others to further research those programs.
Some professional readers will be disappointed by the lack of reference to existing research and writing, especially on the topic of dementia, ageism, and the associated stigma. A brief check using the search engines EBSCOhost and AgeLine yielded more than 50 references on this topic. And I wondered if the author could have identified the “large-scale study,” referred to on page 164 in the text, for readers’ benefit. Based on the outcomes Basting mentioned, I assume the study was conducted by the late Gene Cohen (2006), Research on Creativity and Aging: The Positive Impact of the Arts on Health and Illness. Still, contact information for the selected arts programs at the end of the book provides a useful resource.
The book concludes with 12 valuable recommendations that are written “from the heart” and founded on years of experience related to dementia research and care. Among the topics I particularly appreciate are “6. Value Listening, Silence and the Present Moment,” and “8. Healing is Bigger than Memory.”
Overall, this book succeeds in conveying a message of hope as Basting describes a selection of programs designed to improve the quality of life for people with dementia. Basting belongs to a growing number of scholars and practitioners active worldwide, like Jane Verity and Hilary Lee in Australia, Debbie Lahav in Israel, and John Killick in England, who put less emphasis on the ability to remember accurately and instead embrace “the enjoyment of the moment.” This book, specifically Part Three, demonstrates the engagement in meaningful activities that truly celebrate the person inside the dementia.
