ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the potential and limitations of one of the most widespread tools for claiming identities–narrative. It suggests ways in which the categories of narrative coherence and counter-narratives need to be rethought in the context of identity narratives in dementia. The chapter considers first-person accounts by people with dementia, so-called autopathographies as well as collaborative life story work with people with dementia in order to shed light on possibilities and limitations of the notion of narrative identity in the context of progressive neurodegenerative diseases. It describes the limits of narrative coherence in constructing identity, while also stressing the ethical imperative of attending to identity narratives in the context of dementia life story work and life writing. The chapter also suggests that in the context of collaborative dementia life narratives, as compared with other sorts of life writing, a relatively greater proportion of the task of co-creating coherence and co-constituting the interlocutor’s identity may shift to the editor, listener.
