Deeper into the Soul

Beyond Dementia and Alzheimer’s Towards Forgetfulness Care

Nader R. Shabahangi · Bogna Szymkiewicz

Year 2008
Pages 124
Publisher Eldership Academy Press
Year 2008
Pages 124
Publisher Eldership Academy Press

Introducing the book

This book is a practical guide for people who work and live with relatives or residents with symptoms of forgetfulness. The authors offer ideas and tips dealing with symptoms such as aggression and wandering, but they also explore a new way of understanding the people for whom we care. They ask the basic existential questions: What are the possible meanings of forgetfulness? What purpose does it serve for both caregiver and the one experiencing forgetfulness?

In Deeper into the Soul: Beyond Dementia and Alzheimer’s Toward Forgetfulness Care, the authors invite us to shift our attitude toward dementia, or forgetfulness, as they call it. Accompanying us are four characters—a sage, a psychologist, a physician, and an intern—who each sees Forgetfulness from a different viewpoint. The goal is to develop a perspective which includes the basic ingredients of openness, curiosity and acceptance.

Deeper into the Soul reminds us that each stage of forgetfulness is a meaningful part of the life journey, during which people have important emotional and spiritual experiences. The authors remind us that with each effort to understand others, we expand our view of the world. Rather than simply a disease, forgetfulness has purpose and meaning; rather than simply being in need of our care, people with forgetfulness can teach us about life and living; rather than a burden, people with dementia offer us an opportunity to slow down, to be more open and caring, to get in touch with the essence of our human nature. In the process, we deepen ourselves, deepen our souls.

Reviews

If you are a researcher, a hospital worker, a teacher, a caregiver, this book belongs on your desk or at your bedside. …Deeper into the Soul will push you further than you meant to go, surprising you into a smile of pleasure, a buzz of new learning, a challenge to your usual interpretation of meaning. Best of all, it will engage and enlarge your heart

Elizabeth Bugental, PhD; Psychotherapist and Author of AgeSong: Mediations for Our Later Years.

Deeper into the Soul is a beacon of hope and understanding for victims of dementia, their caregivers and families. This remarkable book presents a comprehensive explanation of the challenges of life with Alzheimer’s, and encourages us regarding its possibilities for the future.

Edward Voris, Developer, Builder, Fundraiser; Recently diagnosed with Dementia/Alzheimer’s

In times when our society faces an increasing number of people suffering from dementia, an approach that goes beyond the neurological explanations and adventures into the emotional and spiritual experiences of those suffering and those caregiving brings a perspective that encourages support, understanding, and a very much needed new paradigm to face this challenge. Deeper into the Soul represents that paradigm in which dementia and forgetfulness represent a meaningful part of the life journey.

Gloria Cavanaugh, retired President & CEO American Society on Aging/Consultant Institute on Aging

About the authors

Nader Shabahanghi

Nader R. Shabahangi, Ph.D.

Nader R. Shabahangi, Ph.D., received his doctorate from Stanford University and is a licensed psychotherapist. His multicultural background has made him an advocate for different marginalized groups of society throughout his adult life. In the 1980’s he worked with abused children and teenagers and led anticipatory bereavement groups for Coming Home Hospice. In 1992 he founded the non-profit organization Pacific Institute with the purpose of training psychotherapists in a multicultural, humanistic approach to counseling and to provide affordable therapy services to the many diverse groups living in San Francisco.

Bogna Szymkiewicz, Ph.D.

Bogna Szymkiewicz, PhD has been teaching for over 30 years at the Institute of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw.

She holds a diploma in Process Work from Zürich and a degree in clinical psychology from the University of Warsaw. She works with clients in private practice, facilitates groups and teaches Process Work in different countries.

She is also a co-founder of the Process Work Study Center in Poland, where she regularly teaches and gives supervision. As a researcher and author of articles and books, she participates in many conferences.

She is the author of “Hurt Feelings: A Journey Into the Wounded States of Consciousness and Beyond” as well as the co-author “Deeper into the Soul. Beyond Dementia and Alzheimer’s towards Forgetfulness Care”.

Her publications in Polish include: “Wounded States of Consciousness” (Polish version of “Hurt Feelings”); “Why it is so Difficult to Leave? Narratives of Women who Experience Domestic Violence”; anthology “Process Work: Theory and Practice” (editor and author of several articles).