I.S. Opens a Door

continued …

Though he started out doing "research assistant-type grunt work,” George’s role soon expanded to include interviewing end-of-life dementia patients for a project funded by the National Institute of Aging, editing manuscripts, even coauthoring a book review.

Today, one year after their first meeting, George is collaborating with Whitehouse on a book that the doctor calls, somewhat facetiously, "part memoir, part exposØ.”

After more than two decades as a leader in the development of pharmacological treatments for Alzheimer’s, Whitehouse believes we need to reframe how we think about — and treat — the condition, placing greater emphasis on non-pharmacological means of enhancing patients’ quality of life. One such approach, which George focused on in his I.S., is a communal storytelling exercise called Timeslips that allows people with Alzheimer’s to satisfy their need for creative expression.

"Memory loss is not just a medical problem but part of the trajectory of aging,” Whitehouse says. "For me, the epiphany was the invention of the term ‘mild cognitive impairment’ to define a state of cognition and functional ability between normal aging and mild Alzheimer’s.”

Whitehouse sees this development, along with phenomena like the creation of an American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, as the result of "a particularly Western way of looking at aging” as a disease, an outlook he does not share.

"Basically, I’m a heretic,” he says cheerfully. He hopes to spread his heresy in a new book.

Says George, "We’re trying to use his personal evolution to flesh out the history of the illness, as well as his transformation from a purveyor of the normal story about Alzheimer’s to one who’s not sure it has any validity.”

Whitehouse has written hundreds of scholarly articles and edited half a dozen books, but none address the broad audience he hopes to reach with this new work. He’s counting on George’s writing and editing skills to help him.

So far the work is going well. The introduction and first chapters are complete. A literary agent has agreed to shop the manuscript to publishers. Along the way, Whitehouse says, George "has moved from being my assistant to being a coauthor. If I’m not careful, this book is going to wind up being ‘by Danny George with Peter Whitehouse.’” He refers to his assistant affectionately as "an impertinent but bright and therefore tolerable young man.”

Whitehouse hopes to publish the book in November 2006 to coincide with a conference on the first hundred years of Alzheimer’s disease sponsored by the University Center for Aging and Health at Case.

Meanwhile, George will begin a master’s program in public health this fall at Case, on a full scholarship.

"After that, who knows?” he says. "I’d like to be someone who keeps evolving his skills and interests over time and tries on different professional hats. I am quite sure that whatever work I do will be in the health field.”

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