Anne Bast Narrative Essay

Anne Basting investigates the narrative construction in three autobiographies written by individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. Two of the narratives follow a linear structure, which has one “self” as the narrative. The third narrative is structured liked a journal. Basting is interested in particular looking at one’s self through the written narrative.
The first narrative, Living in the Labryinth, follows Diana McGowin in her life before and after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Her narrative begins describing her “normal” life as a mother, wife, and manager of a law firm. However, her normal life has growing tales of confusion. After several family members express concern, Diana goes to the doctor. There she is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Diana is in guilty and does not want to tell her husband and children, as she is afraid they will abandon her. She chooses to write as an outlet that does not judge and to help others who are going through this disease. The autobiography ends …show more content…
This is important since most individuals identities change as a result of being diagnosed with the disease. This article is important to my research since it shows that writing can be an outlet for an individual with Alzheimer’s disease. However, this article is qualitative, exploratory, and retrospective. Meaning that there is no quantitative data and the author is analyzing autobiographies for themes. I believe this research is necessary since most research in this area tends to focus on the behavioral component of the disease (i.e., memory training) rather than the affective component. I agree with what Basting’s conclusion in this article. In particular, I enjoyed how she defined identities into multiple components. This will make my data richer and more authentic by being able to dissect things my client says into the social and personal components of