The document uses the analogy of a photograph album to represent a person's memory system, with photographs representing individual memories. Normally, photographs contain both facts and associated feelings from experiences. However, dementia can introduce "blank" photographs that only contain feelings without the stored facts. Over time, as dementia progresses, more blank photographs accumulate in the album, replacing normal fact-filled photographs, until few remain.
1. The SPECAL Photograph Album
We use the analogy of a photograph
album to represent the person’s
memory system, with photographs
that represent the individual
memories
2. The SPECAL Photograph Album
Photographs record all our experiences as they happen;
they contain the facts and feelings associated with each experience
Normal photograph:
facts-plus-feelings
feelings
facts
The taking and storing of photographs in our album is an automatic
and unconscious process going on in the background of our life ……
3. As we live out our life, photographs of what has just happened are arriving all the time …
Photographs fly in on today’s page with no effort
from us whatsoever
4. The SPECAL Photograph Album
Dementia introduces a new type
of photograph into the person’s feelings
album - a fact-free, feelings-only
photograph that we call a blank
In a blank the feelings take
up all the space where the
facts would normally have
been stored
5. At first, these new dementia photographs will be very few and far between
7. The blanks will build up progressively and occur sequentially ….
8. In the final stage there will be very few normal photographs
9. The SPECAL Photograph Album
1 - Normal (pre-dementia) 2 – Early dementia
3 – Mid stage dementia 4 - Late dementia
Editor's Notes
COPYRIGHT SPECAL 2010 My most constant reference book Carried all the time I can look back But almost always on today’s page
COPYRIGHT SPECAL 2010
Album falls open on today’s page Latest photographs are flying in We consult today’s page all the time Making sense of what I am doing It is my constant reference point The photographs keep flying in And the pages continue to build up Aging Seeing Hearing Slower All sorts of trouble Not dementia What is dementia It is a single change
COPYRIGHT SPECAL 2010
As these blanks build up they occur sequentially Providing a ribbon of lost factual information Whole sentences
The process continues
COPYRIGHT SPECAL 2010 And now in end stage dementia, two people, one with and one Without dementia, have albums like this The person on the left is referencing what has just happened The one on the right is running almost entirely on feelings without any facts The old photographs from long before dementia are there, but we don’t use those It is common sense not to But common sense is no good for the person with dementia They need SPECAL sense and they need help from us Feelings are more important to them than facts We need to look at feelings
