Annelieke Driessen is a medical anthropologist working at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include the question how life with dementia can be ‘good’. This has led her to explore care practices in which interesting subject positions are brought about through ethnographic methodsand creative writing and theories of valuation. She conceptualised the Dementia Letter Project. Working with Hannah has brought it to life.
Hannah Cowan is a medical anthropologist working at King’s College London interested in activism, inequalities, and health. She currently runs the Utopia Now! Project which uses participatory, creative practice to intervene in the production of medical knowledge.
Life with dementia urgently needs to be reimagined. The dominant social imaginary of dementia perpetuates a story in which people with dementia cannot have a life that is ‘good’. In this Position Piece we draw from eight letters written for the Dementia Letter project, in which the letters’ authors address their potential future self with dementia. We found that using the creative method of letter writing opened up possibilities for writers to fill uncertain futures with dementia with new experiences and relations, as well as opportunities for exploring multiple temporalities and versions of themselves. We highlight five inspirations from the letters: living with what is, the future as a space of possibility, populating the everyday, folding time, and cultivating multiple selves. Through these, we argue, alternative futures, and a present, with dementia can be reimagined, and made differently.
