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A Word from Two Turtles

Dementia: The International Journal of Social Research and Practice is appearing at a time when there is a growing advocacy movement around the world by people with dementia (PWiDs, rhymes with kids). Turtle-like in our cognition, we PWiDs can draw on our emotional and spiritual resources to function. Over the past decade, earlier diagnosis, anti-dementia drugs, support groups and counselling have empowered early-stage highfunctioning persons with dementia and we have been able to initiate an international advocacy movement. We are able to share our experience with you of the trauma of a diagnosis of dementia, of the feelings of confusion, and the ebbs and flows of our functioning. We feel honoured to be able to contribute this editorial to the second issue of a new journal, which validates these experiences. As PWiDs we seek inclusion in the debate between our world and yours, for we know both intimately, having left your world at the moment of diagnosis. Let us introduce ourselves. Morris was a sociology professor in the US who studied colonization and marginalization, such as women’s experience in western culture, but his personal acquaintance with these issues was little more than academic. After being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1998, he found himself transmogrified into a woman. He was supposed to be weak at sustained attention (‘flighty’), poor at logic and long-range planning, but great at living in the moment, at smelling the flowers and at appreciating the warmth of touch. It was not his fault, but just an inevitable outcome of biology. What an opportunity for participant-observation research into marginalization! Christine was a senior public servant responsible for advising the Australian government on science and technology, and managing a large funding program before being diagnosed with fronto-temporal dementia in 1995. Throughout her career she fought against the stereotype of womanhood, by analysing, organizing, planning and exercising strong de men tia