ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the sociological grounds of Alzheimer's disease and the amnesia and cognitive decline that are purported to be its symptoms in terms of the collective existential conditions associated with mutations of the symbolic order and institutional structure of the contemporary age. The most famous epidemiological study of Alzheimer's disease is the so-called Nun Study. Very briefly, the Nun Study is an ongoing longitudinal epidemiological study, commenced in 1986, initiated by David Snowdon at the University of Kentucky Medical School, and since 2009 at the University of Minnesota. The Nun Study teaches us two things about Alzheimer's disease. First, the importance of Beruf, vocation, pursuing a life task in a definite field of work in response to a calling from a big Other as a source of meaningfulness. Second, the importance of being embedded in an institutional order and imaginative structure within which a vocation is supported and enabled to be coherently pursued.
