This interdisciplinary book offers a relational perspective to dementia care drawing on attachment theory and practice. Relevant to professionals and the general public alike, it brings together innovative research and practice in psychotherapy and the creative arts with the lived experience of being a carer. Indeed, the book includes insights from professional and personal experience throughout. It also provides exclusive access to Josh Appignanesi's short film, Ex Memoria, about his grandmother's experience of dementia, poignantly portrayed by Sara Kestelman. Chapters include the experience of caring for a sister with dementia; the importance of an attachment perspective in theory and practice; a new approach to understanding the possible origins of dementia in trauma; contemporary understandings from clinical and research arenas; the description of a leading-edge project providing psychotherapeutic work; and an innovative creative arts and reminiscence European-wide family intervention for those living with dementia.
Written in accessible language, Dementia: An Attachment Approach will be of great interest to people living with dementia, as well as those working with, and caring for, people with dementia in a variety of contexts including nurses, doctors and psychiatrists, clinical and counselling psychologists, social workers, health and social care workers, family carers and psychotherapists, as well as creative arts practitioners and policymakers.
About the Author: Kate White is a training therapist, supervisor, researcher and teacher at The Bowlby Centre, UK. She is series editor of The Bowlby Centre Monograph Series and was formerly editor of the journal Attachment: New Directions in Psychotherapy and Relational Psychoanalysis. Kate was previously a senior lecturer in district nursing at London South Bank University, UK. She has edited and co-edited many books on a variety of issues in relation to psychoanalysis, including attachment, culture, sexuality, trauma and the body.
Angela Cotter is a Jungian analyst, training supervisor and teacher. She is Head of Research at the Minster Centre and a Visiting Lecturer at Regent's University London, UK. She is a former NHS nursing home manager and action researcher, working with older people and people with dementia. Since her doctorate in 1990, her research has focused on the phenomenon of the wounded healer, which informs her work on the significance of the current growth of dementia and ways of supporting those who care for people with dementia.
Hazel Leventhal trained as a psychotherapist at The Bowlby Centre, where she chaired the Clinical Forum for several years. Her previous works include the play My Sister, Disappearing and a book entitled Soul Stories. She has worked as a Samaritan and is a member of The Alzheimer's Society and has done some publicity work on their behalf. She has a private practice in Aspley Heath, UK.
