Stolen Mind: The Slow Disappearance of Ray Doernberg

The widow of a 48-year-old victim of Binswanger's Disease, a rare, hard-to-diagnose brain disorder with Alzheimer's-like dementia symptoms, recounts her husband's two-year ordeal, from the first signs of memory loss through a series of small strokes and epileptic seizures, which led to his death in 1984. Doernberg's journal provides objective details about the nature of the disorder and its inexorable progress, as well as a moving account of its emotional toll on herself and the couple's two sons. Most painful were Ray's personality changes and his mental ""absence'' while he was still physically present. As he became more irresponsible and dependent, and until the organic cause of his behavior was belatedly diagnosed, anger vied with the author's pity, frustration and fear. As with Alzheimer's, Doernberg found, there are no insurance programs or public funds to cover custodial or personal-needs care. Illustrations. (April)