Can a long-forgotten memory of a horrible event suddenly resurface years later? How can we know whether a memory is true or false? Seven spellbinding cases shed light on why it is rare for a reclaimed memory to be wholly false. Here are unforgettable true stories of what happens when people remember what they've tried to forget -- plus one case of genuine false memory. In the best detective-story fashion, using her insights as a psychiatrist and the latest research on the mind and the brain, Lenore Terr helps us separate truth from fiction.
On autopsy, the brain of an Alzheimer's patient can weigh as little as 30 percent of a healthy brain. The tissue grows porous. It is a sieve through which the past slips. As her mother loses her grasp on their shared history, Elizabeth Kadetsky sifts through boxes of the snapshots, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and notebooks that remain, hoping to uncover the memories that her mother is actively losing as her dementia progresses. These remnants offer the false yet beguiling suggestion that the past is easy to reconstruct—easy to hold. At turns lyrical, poignant, and alluring, The Memory Eaters tells the story of a family's cyclical and intergenerational incidents of trauma, secret-keeping, and forgetting in the context of 1970s and 1980s New York City. Moving from her parents' divorce to her mother's career as a Seventh Avenue fashion model and from her sister's addiction and homelessness to her own experiences with therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, Kadetsky takes readers on a spiraling trip through memory, consciousness fractured by addiction and dementia, and a compulsion for the past salved by nostalgia.
Spurred by old memories and a life-changing accident, Madison embarks on a cross-country adventure to reconnect with three very different men to reevaluate her past choices.
Courage yields unexpected surprises when Justin visits his school's dreaded lost and found. A witty, award-winning story about childhood fears from Bill Harley and Adam Gustavson. When Justin loses the special hat his grandmother made for him, he looks everywhere for it. Everywhere, that is, except the lost and found. Mr. Rumkowsky, the old school custodian, is the keeper of all the lost and found items, and everyone is afraid of him—including Justin. When he finally musters the courage to enter Mr. Rumkowsky's domain, he discovers a whole world of treasures. But things keep getting weirder and weirder, until way down at the bottom of Rumkowsky's giant box, Justin unearths something completely unexpected...
Between 1913 and 1989 some four million South Africans were forcibly removed from their homes to enforce residential segregation along racial lines. This study records and interprets the memories of some of the Capetonians who were relocated as a result of the infamous Group Areas Act. Former resients of Windermere, Tramway Road in Sea Point, District Six, Lower Claremont, and Simon's Town narrate their experiences.
'Exquisite . . . a book for anyone with a loved one with dementia. In Montague's hands this landscape is rendered more bearable.' Irish Times 'A profoundly moving book . . . Jules Montague is writing about whatit is to be human and the surprising fragility of our sense of self.' Daily Mail Who do you become when your mind misbehaves? Neurologist Dr Jules Montague blends stories of her patients experiencing dementia, brain injury and other neurological disorder with profound insights on what makes us who we are. At once poignant and consoling, this revelatory book explores how we lose ourselves and those around us - and how we can be found again. Lost and Found is a fascinating and timely examination of happens to the person left behind when memories disappear, personality changes, and consciousness is disrupted.
"Hands are our creative contact point with the world. To Jungian analyst Sonoko Toyoda, they represent feminine spirituality and offer a way to achieve wholeness, in women and men alike. But in the contemporary world, many women have lost the wisdom their hands represent and now must recover the memory of them. Through a traditional story told by the Grimm brothers and similar folk tales from around the world, Toyoda explores the ancient meaning of a woman's hands and the wound of losing them. In the details of these stories she finds common threats to feminine independence and creativity and hopeful clues for how these qualities can be regained. She considers, as well, cultural variations in the tales and how the tasks of spiritual wholeness differ for women in Japan and the West. Turning to the biographies of two prominent women artists - Frida Kahlo and Camille Claudel - she discovers similar themes played out in two historical lives. In these women's relationships with their fathers, brothers, and lovers, she considers further the sources of spiritual wounding. In both paintings and sculptures, Toyoda examines what feminine creativity is."--BOOK JACKET.
If a loved one changes as a result of abrain disorder, are they still the same person? So begins a beautifully written and deeply moving book for our times, about who we become when our minds misbehave - from dementia to sleep disorders. Written by a leading neurologist, it is perfect for readers of Henry Marsh, Oliver Sacks and Stephen Grosz.
A profound and brave addition to the celebrity memoir canon.' - The Spinoff Toni Street's easy on-air style and warm personality has made her a firm favourite with thousands of New Zealanders. But behind the bubbly persona, is a story of heartbreak and resilience. Toni and her twin brother Lance were the much-loved first children of Taranaki dairy farmers Geoff and Wendy Street. At nine months old, Lance was diagnosed with Acute Myloid Leukaemia, passing away a year later. Devastated but determined to give Toni another sibling, Wendy became pregnant soon after Lance's death, but after a difficult pregnancy, their baby Tracy was born, but only lived for a couple of hours. Trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life, Wendy became pregnant again, and the Streets were overjoyed and relieved to welcome to a healthy boy, Stephen. Life returned to some kind of normalcy, and two years after Stephen was born, Wendy gave birth to another baby, Kirsty. But then, when Stephen was 14, the unthinkable happened. While out on the farm with his dad, Stephen was killed in a quad bike accident. His death would become the seismic marker of Toni's life, as she vowed to do everything in her power to bring happiness to her parent's life. Toni would go onto become one of New Zealand's most popular and successful television reporters and hosts and was determined to raise her own large family, with husband Matt. But after giving birth to their second child, she became seriously unwell, and was admitted to hospital, in agony. Eventually diagnosed with a rare immune disease, Churg-Strauss syndrome, she had her gall bladder removed, and is on permanent medication. As a result, she and Matt found that she was unable to carry another child. Desperate for the large family that her parents missed out on, Toni's dream for a third child was realised by her best friend, who offered to be her and Matt's surrogate. Toni and her family's story is one of almost unbelievable trial and tragedy, but also love, determination and incredible resilience and will strike a chord with anyone who has gone through difficult times.
