On Recognition, Caring, and Dementia: Taylor’s Essay Featured on This American Life
Posted: 2/1/2024 (CSDE Research)
CSDE Affiliate Dr. Janelle Taylor (Anthropology, University of Toronto) was featured on This American Life, a radio program by Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. In Act 3 of Episode #823 “The Question Trap,” Taylor reads an essay adapted from an article that she published in Medical Anthropology Quarterly in 2008, titled “On Recognition, Caring, and Dementia“. In that article, she wrote about what she had learned in the course of her mother’s decline into dementia, reflecting on the question people often asked: whether her mother “recognized” her. She took this question as an entry point to explore the meaning of recognition for care. Borrowing a phrase from her (by then severely impaired) mother, the article proposes that we should be asking a more compassionate question, which is “how can we best strive to ‘keep the cares together’?” Learn more in the episode from This American Life (here) and in Taylor’s article.