Abstract
One goal of this paper is to argue that autobiographical memories are extended and distributed across embodied brains and environmental resources. This is important because such distributed memories play a constitutive role in our narrative identity. So, some of the building blocks of our narrative identity are not brain-bound but extended and distributed. Recognising the distributed nature of memory and narrative identity, invites us to find treatments and strategies focusing on the environment in which dementia patients are situated. A second goal of this paper is to suggest various of such strategies, including lifelogging technologies such as SenseCams, life story books, multimedia biographies, memory boxes, ambient intelligence systems, and virtual reality applications. Such technologies allow dementia patients to remember their personal past in a way that wouldn’t be possible by merely relying on their biological memory, in that way aiding in preserving their narrative identity and positively contributing to their sense of well-being.
Highlights
On one level of analysis, who we are, our identity, is constituted by our personal narrative [1]
One way to try to counter the detrimental effects of dementia on autobiographical memory and narrative identity is by using evocative objects [4]
This paper has first conceptualised the relation between narrative identity and the environment in which we are situated, arguing that the narratives of both cognitive healthy agents and those with dementia are distributed across embodied agents interacting with evocative objects
Summary
On one level of analysis, who we are, our identity, is constituted by our personal narrative [1]. I argued that, on one level of analysis, human identity has a narrative structure constituted by emplotted autobiographical memories, including those with episodic and semantic content. Objects evoking and distributing autobiographical memory can improve the well-being of people with dementia, in that they can help to maintain the integrity, delay the disintegration, or in some cases replace parts of one’s personal narrative. Some of these suggestions presented below are based on existing empirical research, whereas others are more speculative. Such general memory books typically include semantic information about, for example, to-do lists, phone numbers, etc
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