Will I Still Be Me?

Christine’s insider account of dementia, focusing on the continuing sense of self in the disease, brings a powerful message of hope for people who have dementia, their families and health care providers. People with dementia are still people of worth, even in the face of increasing cognitive decline and memory dysfunction. – Rev Prof Elizabeth MacKinlay, CAPS, Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, St Mark’s National Theological Centre and School of Theology, Charles Stuart UniversityChristine Bryden demonstrates powerfully that, despite dementia, her self and desire to improve her community are intact, that people living with dementia can enjoy mutually positive relationships with others and that we honor our own humanity ever more deeply when we honor the humanity of people living with dementia. – Steven R. Sabat, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.The question of what makes “me” me and how I can hold on to my sense of self in the midst of the challenges of dementia is to say the least, challenging. What is it that holds me in my selfhood and identity when I seem to be forgetting all of the old markers that held me in place? Christine Bryden offers a profound challenge to such false assumptions. Through narrative, personal reflection and enlightening philosophical reflection, Christine opens up fresh space for hope within which the complex cadences of personal and communal selfhood can be understood in ways that enable people truly to live with dementia. – Rev. Professor John Swinton, Professor in Practical Theology and Pastoral Care, King’s College University of AberdeenChristine Bryden is a remarkable woman, and a pioneering dementia advocate, one I am proud to call a friend. Will I Still Be Me? is a tribute to her continued commitment to improve the lives of all people with dementia, gives us hope, and deep insight into how her spirituality has supported her to live positively with dementia. Christine has given the world another great gift; her writing, her research and her appraisal of an insider’s view of how dementia affects so much more than one individual. – Kate Swaffer, Human Rights Activist and author of What the Hell Happened to My Brain?

Christine Bryden was diagnosed with dementia in 1995 and since then has become the foremost dementia advocate, speaking at national and international conferences and campaigning for self-advocacy. She lives in Brisbane, Australia.