Alzheimer: The Life of a Physician and the Career of a Disease - Hardcover

Alzheimer will be with us for many years, so it is fitting that this book, charming written and well documented... be translated and made widely available to tell us what he did, the milieu of his work, and how relevant it was and is to our predicament today. -- Walter J. Freeman American Journal of Psychiatry The book rests on extensive archival research, and its usefulness is further enhanced by inclusion of Alzheimer's family tree, chronology of his life, notes, glossary, and internet resources about Alzheimer's disease. -- Thomas P. Gariepy Quarterly Review of Biology Authoritative and riveting... We must be grateful to the authors and translators who have brought us what is likely to remain for some time the only story of the man called Alois Alzheimer. -- Raymond Levy International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry

The very name Alzheimer is sure to bring a shudder. Thirty to forty million people are now afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, a degenerative brain disorder that strips its victims of their identity and leaves families bereft and social services strained. Despite considerable research, the underlying causes of Alzheimer's disease remain shrouded in mystery. So, too, does the man after whom it was named. Alois Alzheimer (1864-1915) was practicing medicine at the Frankfurt Asylum in 1901 when he met a patient, who would become known as "Auguste D.," whose condition perplexed and intrigued him. Alzheimer is more than a biography; it is a story of scientific discovery at a crucial stage in the history of medical psychiatry.