Vascular Dementia

Biography

Biography: Elisabeth Fürst

Abstract

Eight years ago a 53 years old man was rescued from a cardiac arrest that lasted 3/4 of an hour, an incident that subsequently led to a severe brain damage and the diagnosis of dementia. This man was not just anybody, he was my husband. In this sudden moment, I was thrown into a situation of participant observation, trained as I was in anthropology.

In this paper, I present some reflections from a perspective of being a next of kin as well as social researcher. My phenomenological focus will concentrate on the amazing influence that music seems to have had on his recovery, especially the way it seems to have encouraged his emerging sense of self and identity. Even though he is suffering from severe cognitive problems with orientation in time, space and vision, he is physically on his feet, walking around in a rather stable manner. While it seems that music has been important for his condition from the start, the last five years he has attended therapeutical music lessons twice a week, singing songs accompanied by the teachers' guitar. Astonishingly he has been able to learn new melodies as well texts, and lately we have observed emotional responses to the music that he performs which has not been observed before.