Research about the importance of identity, dignity and memory
I have trained as a medical anthropologist, interested in how people make meaning of their lives when diagnosed with serious illness.
What matters most in these moments? How do we want to be seen? How do we want to continue in our relationships? How do we want to be remembered?
Over the past 20 years, across research studies with young adults living with advanced cancer, people receiving new cancer therapies, and people living with dementia, I’ve seen the importance of having one’s story, and one’s self, intimately known and seen.
Especially if a progressing disease seems like it will change how we understanding ourselves and how we’d like to be remembered.
These are some of the research studies that I have loved, many of which I have led. I share these with deep gratitude for the many people who shared their thoughts and hopes with me.
The importance of legacy
I have been thinking about how the self continues, how one remains in relationship with loved ones through and beyond death, for over 20 years.
One word for understanding the endurance of the self is legacy. Below is an article and a blog post discussing thinking and talking about legacy, and making choices with legacy in mind.
The concept of Legacy
This research study asks:
What does the concept of legacy mean when one is faced with serious illness?
What treatment choices do people make with legacy in mind?
A new way to talk about our last days
This blog discusses the importance of discussed legacy with people facing serious illness.
“Death itself is sometimes spoken of as an end, as in “the end of life.” That can mean the end of biological function, but we have opportunities for connections that remain beyond death. We have social relationships and connections that will continue.”