Do You Remember Me?: A Father, a Daughter, and a Search for the Self Book

Levine writes a very honest and thought-out memoir of the experience of watching her father advance through the different stages of Alzheimers. Her research into cognitive and neurological information is impressive, but also her observations and conclusions about her father's mind's deterioration into dementia and her (and her family's) reactions. Watching a father, the "leader and strong person" in a family go through a mind-losing process is hard, the whole family dynamic is forced to adjust, but also each person individually. I also found a bit haunting the questioning of what is our self, and does this self survive the mind-losing process. My personal answer is that yes, our soul is personal, private and very much alive, even in dementia. Maybe it gets hidden a little as the the communication and reasoning skills are lost, but it is definitely there, it is the esence of who we are and dictates our likes and dislikes, as well as our reactions and emotions, up to the very end.