Drexel University’s Jesse F. Ballenger on the History of Alzheimer’s Disease

Our scientific understanding of — and society’s response to — dementia are constantly evolving. When Alzheimer’s first came into public consciousness in 1906, attitudes around cognition, aging, and self were quite different than they are today.

Jesse F. Ballenger, PhD, a historian of medicine who teaches bioethics and health humanities in the Department of Health Administration at Drexel, has traced the history of Alzheimer’s disease and attitudes around aging in Self, Senility, and Alzheimer’s Disease in Modern America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006). He is also currently working on a book called Dementia – A Critical History, which will explore the broad human experience with this condition from antiquity to the present. Ballenger joins Being Patient Live Talks Friday, December 8th, at 1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET to discuss the history of Alzheimer’s and how our attitudes around aging have shifted. 

RSVP to the live talk to learn more about Alzheimer’s from the perspective of a historian.