The Forgetting
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tangles vs., 21–22, 24–26, 152–53, 155–57
plasticity, 53
Plato, 15, 45, 233, 238
Plutarch, 86–87
polio, 67, 210
“politics of anguish,” 134, 137
polymer pellets, 63
Porteus Mazes, 37
positron emission tomography (PET), 38, 94, 193, 248
posthumanism, 235–39
Pound, Ezra, 72
prefrontal cortex, 46, 49, 246
“Preoperational” stage, 128
primary sensory area, 124
prions, 148–50, 245
prisoners-of-war, 95–96
problem-solving, 250
products, Alzheimer-related, 29–30
“prolongation of morbidity,” 164
Prospect Park, 253–56
Prospect Park Residence, 256
proteins, 64, 144, 146, 148–50, 156, 184, 245, 246
Prusinger, Stanley, 4, 148–50, 156, 245
psychiatry, 75–84
psychoanalysis, 76–77
psychomotor skills, 37
psychosis, 38
Pullman, George, 109
puzzles, 37, 117
Pyramid Texts, 44
qEEG, 94
Ra, 44
rats, 49–50
Reagan, Maureen, 116, 117, 242–43
Reagan, Nancy, 20, 21, 87, 117, 231
Reagan, Ronald, 17–22, 72, 87, 116–17, 136–37, 143, 231, 242
reflexes, 14, 123, 222
rehabilitation, 94–95, 247–52
Reisberg, Barry, 122–24, 127
rejuvenation theory, 202–6
reproduction, sexual, 173–75
research, Alzheimer’s:
animal, 151, 178–89, 209–14, 243
breakthroughs in, 63–64, 209–14
conferences on, 4–5, 62–70, 148–59, 242–52
conventional wisdom in, 150, 156–57, 244–46
developmental, 117–30, 221–24
drug, 62–63, 153, 158–59, 178, 185–89, 209–14, 246, 250
funding for, 68, 134–36, 157–60, 187–89, 212, 242–43
genetic, 53, 63, 64, 69–70, 124, 150–55, 178–89, 243–46
marketization of, 185–89
molecular, 4–5, 63, 64, 143–46, 148–50
rivalry in, 148–50, 152–55
Research on Aging Act, 135
residual cognitive capacities, 128
retirement, 95
retrogenesis, 117–30, 221–24
Roethke, Theodore, 193
Rose, Michael, 236
Rose, Steven, 185
Roses, Allen, 152–55, 156, 187–89, 245
Royal Psychiatric Clinic, 22–23
Ruedin, Ernst, 182
Ruskin, John, 219
Russell, Phillips, 103
Sabin, Albert, 67, 210
safety issues, 33, 67, 121
Sahagún, Bernardino de, 166
St. Elizabeth’s Hospital (Washington, D.C.), 72–74
Salk, Jonas, 67
Schacter, Daniel, 51
Scheck, Barry, 56
Scheffler, Israel, 202
Schellenberg, Gerard, 151
Schenk, Dale, 210–14, 243–46
schistosomiasis, 80
schizophrenia, 14
Schulze, Richard, 140–43
Science, 49
Scipio, L., 17, 230
Scorsese, Martin, 54–55, 57
scotophobin, 50
Scovine, William Beecher, 46
seizures, 22, 38, 46, 47
self-identity, 46, 55, 119, 128, 169–70, 192–93, 196, 198–99, 202–3, 204
“Self-Reliance” (Emerson), 3
Seneca, 17, 230
senile dementia:
Alzheimer’s vs., 81–82, 84
in animals, 179
causes of, 73–74
definition of, 15
as disease, 74, 89–90, 101–2, 133, 165–66
progression of, 29–31, 33–34, 103, 168–72
senility:
aging and, 82–84
Alzheimer’s as form of, 5, 15, 17, 29–35, 73–74, 75
as disease, 30, 32, 81, 83–84, 137–38
historical descriptions of, 15, 44, 82–84, 89–90, 121, 165–68, 206
senium praecox, 81
sensory input, 47, 119–20, 124
sequoias, 109
Seurat, Georges, 202
sexuality, 77, 173–75
Shakespeare, William, xi, 83, 89–90, 206, 231
Shultz, George, 116–17
signatures, mortality, 175–76
sign language, 41
Simonides of Ceos, 230, 231
Singer, Mark, 54–55, 57
single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), 187–88
single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), 38
Sioli, Emil, 163
Sisodia, Sangram, 209, 210
sleep, 55, 29, 179, 229
smallpox, 80
smoking, 68
SNP mapping, 187–88
Snyder, Lisa, 252
social contact, 229
Society for Racial Hygiene, 182
Solon, 165
Song, H. J., 63
South Florida, University of, 243
spatial relations, 127
spinal cord, 24
Springsteen, Bruce, 253
Städtische Irrenanstalt, 12
“State of World Health” (1997 report), 164
Stephanie (group facilitator), 114
Stern, Yaakov, 246
Stock, Gregory, 235–36
Storr, Robert, 205
Stovetop fire extinguishers, 30
stress, 69, 88, 129–30
strokes, 14, 33–35, 62, 201, 250
Struldbruggs, 167–68, 171, 172
suffering, 171–72, 184–85, 238–39
Sulla, 86
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (Seurat), 202
“sundowning,” 92
support groups, 28–33, 39–42, 66, 112–16
Swift, Jonathan, 167–72, 226, 237
symbolic thinking, 125, 128
Symbolic Worlds (Scheffler), 202
synapses, neural, 21, 51–52, 62–63, 118, 145
syphilis, 14, 38
systemic senile amyloidosis, 146, 149
Szántó, András, 204–5
tangles:
discovery of, 21–22, 24–26, 32, 35
elimination of, 246, 247
“ghost,” 145
plaques vs., 21–22, 24–26, 152–53, 155–57
research on, 68–69, 73–78, 102, 118–20, 132–34, 137, 143–46, 179
spread of, 21–22, 24–26, 73–78, 144–45, 155, 156, 201, 204, 206, 218–19, 221–24
tau in, 144–45, 155, 156
tantrums, 121–22
Taos, N. Mex., Alzheimer’s conference (1999), 4–5, 62–70, 148–59
tau, 144–45, 155, 156
telomerase, 236
temporal lobes, 37, 46, 119, 125
“Terminus” (Emerson), 104–5, 107, 172
Terry, Robert, 132–34
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 169–70
Thatcher, Margaret, 20
Thayer, James Bradley, 109, 110
Thies, Bill, 209
Thomas, Lewis, 149
Thoreau, Henry David, 3, 55, 166, 248, 251
Thousand and One Nights, A, 165
thyroid condition, 34–35
time, manufactured, 176
tissue-staining, 24, 102
Today, 116
Tolstoy, Leo, 166
touch, sense of, 119, 124
tracking devices, 30
Trail Making Test, 37
Transcendentalism, 108
transgenics, 151, 178–89, 209–14, 236, 243, 246
“transubstantiated future,” 236–37
tremors, 38
tuberculosis, 80
Tully, Tim, 236
tumors, brain, 34–35
Twain, Mark, 1–3, 101
Ungar, George, 50, 51
vaccine, Alzheimer’s, 209–14, 243–46
Van Buren, Abigail, 136
Vanderbilt, George, 254
Vaux, Calvert, 253–54
“Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift” (Swift), 169
Virchow, Rudolf, 163
Virgil, 30
viruses, 149
vision, 46, 50, 124–25, 127–28, 222, 230–31
Vital Spirit, 45
vitamins, 34–35, 229
Walters, Barbara, 5
Wang, C. Y., 64
War and Peace (Tolstoy), 166
Warhol, Andy, 202
Washington, D.C., conference (2000), 242–52
Washington Post, 140
Watson, James, 183
Weber, Matthias M., 78
Wells, Rosemary, 129
Wenders, Wim, 238
Wernicke’s area, 46
western blot analysis, 64
White, E. B., 33–34
Whiteaway, Martha, 169, 170, 171
Whitman, Walt, 106
“Wide World” journals (Emerson), 106
Wiesel, Elie, 95, 96
Wiesel, Torsten, 138–40
Wilder, Thornton, 241
willfulness, 46, 204
Wilson, Francis, 170–71
Wings of Desire, 238
Wired, 236
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, 37
Women (de Kooning), 202
words, 36, 41, 230
Wordsworth, William, 17
World Health Organization, 164
“Wreck of the Hesperus, The” (Longfellow), 109–10
writing, 233
Xenophon, 82
Yates, Frances, 231
yellow fever, 80
Young, Brigham, 109
Young, Edward, 168
Younkin, Steven, 186
Zeiss, Carl, 24
Zeman, Stephanie, 223
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Shenk, a former Freedom Forum fellow, has written for Wired, Harper’s, New Republic, the New York Times, Salon, and the Washington Post, and is a commentator for National Public Radio. He is author of the acclaimed Data Smog and The End of Patience and joint author of Skeleton Key.
The Forgetting won the popular medicine category of the BMA Medical Book Competition 2002.
PRAISE
More from the reviews:
‘A powerful narrative, following the illness through its several stages by tracing the fortunes of its victims, some famous like Reagan, but most less so. This in turn creates a context for excursions into the early history of the disease – as described by Alois Alzheimer and the recent findings of the precise nature of the damage it inflicts on the structure of the brain … readable and really interesting. The most compelling insight I have encountered of how, beneath the surface, scientific research has changed over the last decade.’
JAMES LE FANU, Tablet
‘The definitive work on Alzheimer’s … a truly remarkable book.’
JOHN BAYLEY
‘An elegant new book … Previous Alzheimer’s books have rarely ventured beyond conventions of anguished family memoir, caregiver’s survival guide or life-in-the-lab docu-drama. In The Forgetting, David Shenk attempts something grander, and succeeds admirably.’
Newsweek
‘An admirable account of the disease’
NICHOLAS HARMAN, Spectator
‘Riveting, superb … a must-read for anyone interested in the wretched ailment that is Alzheimer’s.’
San Francisco Chronicle
‘An excellent new book.’
New Yorker
‘A remarkable, compassionate “biography” of Alzheimer’s … poignant and haunting’
DUNCAN HAMILTON, Nottingham Evening Post
‘Deeply affecting … a fascinating meditation on the scientific, political and cultural history of Alzheimer’s disease.’
Washington Post
‘A graceful, masterful portrait of the illness … Readers can’t help but be taken by Shenk’s humanity and compassion, which brim throughout.’
Los Angeles Times
‘Written with a researcher’s attention to detail and a storyteller’s ear.’
New York Times
‘Destined to be a classic … Shenk’s guided tour is free of medical jargon, and filled instead with clear and memorable phrasing.’
Seattle Times
‘A brilliant and quirky new book on Alzheimer’s that offers food for thought on the unthinkable and a new, deeper understanding of the coming epidemic.’
Salon.com
‘Compelling and immensely humane … Shenk’s integration of historical and scientific information and personal stories makes for an absorbing read.’
Newsday
‘A fascinating mix of medical history, the voices of patients and their families, and accounts of the search for a cure … Shenk makes the science understandable and recounts personal stories that are both moving and illuminating.’
Business Week
‘A dazzling literary and scientific history of Alzheimer’s disease.’
Detroit Free Press
‘Carefully researched and engagingly written.’
Wall street Journal
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United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
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United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
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New York, NY 10007
www.harpercollins.com