When Words Have Lost Their Meaning: Alzheimer's Patients Communicate through Art [Hardcover]

Ruth Abraham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2004

Therapist Abraham shows how art can provide people with Alzheimer's disease a way to express their thoughts and emotions, when they can no longer communicate well verbally and words have lost their meaning. Abraham believes it is our moral obligation to provide elders with this tool, lest they be prematurely deemed beyond interaction. The confidence and self-esteem of elders—and that of the people who love them —can be bolstered by art therapy. And this is the first work demonstrating that art is not just busy work for those with Alzheimer's, but a profound and symbolic method allowing them to communicate. This work includes more than 70 drawings and paintings by people with Alzheimer's, and case histories of the men and women who created the artworks.

Art activities, with a significant therapeutic relationship, can especially increase quality of life for people with Alzheimer's, particularly during the seven-year relatively stable period of the illness. Psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists and health care workers will also find this work especially valuable and insightful.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In this immensely moving account Ruth Abraham gives a powerful sense of the life of the patient affected by Alzheimer's. Through lovingly described clinical examples and vivid pictorial illustrations she takes us into the world of the patient and their carers. The book offers practical advice alongside sensitive descriptions of the ravages of the disease but none the less it always remains optimistic. It becomes clear that art therapy can offer a positive contribution by facilitating expression of the personality long after many other faculties have diminished. This is a true contribution to the art therapy literature and it will be a must for art therapists and it will also be of significant interest to all those professionals who work with this client group as well as their families and carers."-Joy Schaverien, Professor of Art Psychotherapy, University of Sheffield, author of The Revealing Image

Book Description

Shows how creating art can give people with Alzheimer's a means to communicate their remaining memory, thoughts, spontaneity, and playfulness.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Praeger (November 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 027597989X
• ISBN-13: 978-0275979898
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #466,695 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ruth Abraham
BA Hons (Psychology), MA Expressive Therapy

A pioneer in her field, Ms. Abraham worked in a geriatric facility for eight years adapting art therapy to the Alzheimer's population. She developed means to assist Alzheimer's sufferers to use the language of art to express and communicate their enduring personal memories, desires, longings, and aesthetic tastes.

Ms. Abraham is the author of "When Words Have Lost Their Meaning: Alzheimer's Patients Communicate Through Art." (Greenwood Press: 2005) In the book she conveys her enduring belief in the profoundly consoling power of art as a therapy for those with Alzheimer's. The book has been translated into Hebrew and Korean and is in the process of Italian translation. She has lectured on the subject in England, Iceland, Germany and Israel.

She has taught art therapy for twenty years in a three-year, post-graduate program and works as an art therapist with children and adults.

Ms Abraham is a also a published fiction writer, currently putting together a new collection of short stories, some of which involve characters suffering from memory loss and dementia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shows such insight and compassion, August 17, 2008

By 

L. Bochsler (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When Words Have Lost Their Meaning: Alzheimer's Patients Communicate through Art (Kindle Edition)

This book helped me in so many ways to be kinder to my mother who had Alzheimers, and pointed me to what remained and away from what was lost. It helped me to understand her torment and so to find ways to comfort her.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book...Complete guide to Art Therapy and Alzheimer's, April 10, 2007

By 

Jennifer Kelling - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When Words Have Lost Their Meaning: Alzheimer's Patients Communicate through Art (Hardcover)

While writing my senior thesis on art therapy and Alzheimer's I was only able to find one book that embodied the subject as a whole. This book includes all the information that one could need on the subject and was written to inform and engage the reader in a way that is compelling and thoughtful. The stories of different Alzheimer's sufferers journeys in art therapy and the accompanying images gives a real life look on the positive affects of art therapy and gives the reader a compassionate view on the subject. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is studying Alzheimer's or knows someone with the disease and would like to learn more about how they can help that person by improving their quality of life through art therapy. Overall the book is written very well in an easy to read way that keeps the reader engaged, while at the same time being very informative and thorough.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely useful text, August 29, 2006

By 

R. Natas (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When Words Have Lost Their Meaning: Alzheimer's Patients Communicate through Art (Hardcover)

This was a very useful text for me when my mother was suffering from Alzheimer's. It reads like a novel, in such clear language, and helped me understand a lot of my mother's bizarre behavior. The author's story of her struggle as a caregiver was so touching; it gave a humane side to this difficult illness.