The Forgetting: Understanding Alzheimer's- David Shenk

Science/Biology/Biography

 

The Forgetting- Understanding Alzheimer’s: A Biography of a Disease

David Shenk

 

Being alive is to continuously experience the world as it impinges on our senses. These experiences leave an imprint on our minds in the form of memories. From these memories we weave a universe that we carry within us till we die. Memory is central to our existence. It tells us who we are and how we are progressing in time. There cannot be meaningful thought in its absence. Neither can there be sustained emotions. If a person is deprived of memory, he ceases to be a human in the most fundamental sense. He loses the sense of self and of the world which surrounds him.

 

Our brain is snugly enclosed in a bony vault. It does not experience the world directly. Our senses feed it information in form of neural activity. This activates various synaptic transmissions among billions of neurons in brain. It is through these electro-chemical signals that brain conjures an infinitely nuanced world for us: all the joys and all the sorrows, all the beliefs and all the fears, our sense of self worth or the lack of it, our likes and dislikes, our affections and our estrangements, our hopes and our frustrations. And if this synaptic transmission in brain is disrupted, we are lost to ourselves and to the world.

 

‘I have lost myself,’ cried Auguste D. as her physician Alois Alzheimer questioned her on her symptoms. She had been brought to him for her malady of forgetfulness. Alzheimer could not help her in any way. Auguste D. died after four years. Alzheimer examined her brain and found a strange pathology in the structure of her brain. The form of Dementia that afflicted August D. was named Alzheimer’s later, by colleagues of Dr Alzheimer. Auguste D thus became the first patient of this devastating human condition.

 

David Shenk, in this book, attempts to tell the story of this ruinous scourge of mankind. Alzheimer’s is a variety of senile dementia, the slow disintegration of brain aggravated by ageing. With the spectacular decline of infective diseases and the consequent increase in longevity, its incidence has increased enormously. A majority of people above eighty are likely to suffer dementia. It eats away victim’s personality like termites. Its hallmark is loss of memory. In the initial years it causes gradually increasing agony to its victim as they slowly forget the chores of daily living. The complete loss of cognition typically takes years. These are excruciatingly painful years for the caretaker of the victim too. Stress of providing care to severely disabled relative is compounded by the anguish of seeing your spouse or a parent, disintegrate gradually but surely, into a lifeless form barely alive.

 

Shenk has covered all these aspects of malady in the book. He writes about its history. He narrates incidences from famous personalities that fell prey to it. He quotes extensively from writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of Alzheimer’s most famous victim. His writings, after he began to manifest early symptoms of disease, poignantly depict the suffering of a mind that was once supremely productive, but is now failing and is aware of its condition and its ultimate fate. Shenk discusses the progress in medicine regarding the pathology and cause of Alzheimer’s and wide research for its cure. He talks about help-groups attempting to restore a semblance of order in the lives of people that have been dishevelled by this cruel affliction. He interviews care-takers as they cope with the destruction visited by Alzheimer’s in their lives.

 

Shenk’s canvas is large. His research is adequate. But he lacks the skill of a competent writer to knit facts into a dazzling prose which throbs with life. His writing is lacklustre, his metaphors are frequently insipid and his prose is common. I was excited when I began the book, having read some of its reviews. But was disappointed as I went along. Book is small and reads easily. These are merits. It also provides a comprehensive knowledge about Alzheimer’s. Read the book if these pluses pass your muster.