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Analysis of Human Images Depicting Memory Loss
Miranda L. Daniel
National University
Psyc427: Biological Psychology
Professor Melissa Veneziano
December 22, 2024
, 2
Abstract
This paper will examine images of humans with abstract concepts of memory loss and the social
perception those portray reveal in concern to the biological roots of memory degeneration. An
analysis of frequently used images on the web indicates that the majority of images depict
elderly people in a clinical environment, looking helpless and lost and with an overemphasis on
the concept of care. These images present an apparently prevailing social attitude to aging and
dementia as undesirable states that lead to weakness, and reliance on the assistance of others.
Although such representations conform to the neuroscientific model of Alzheimer’s disease and
other degenerative diseases, they do not capture the full spectrum of the phenomenon of
forgetting. The images may well be more concerned with feelings and relationships than they are
with the biochemistry of dementia. Through examining such representations, it is the aim of this
paper to demonstrate the lack of parity between cultural understandings of dementia, and the
neurological processes underpinning the condition, and to stress the need for more inclusive
portrayals of aging and memory loss in the media.
Analysis of Human Images Depicting Memory Loss
Miranda L. Daniel
National University
Psyc427: Biological Psychology
Professor Melissa Veneziano
December 22, 2024
, 2
Abstract
This paper will examine images of humans with abstract concepts of memory loss and the social
perception those portray reveal in concern to the biological roots of memory degeneration. An
analysis of frequently used images on the web indicates that the majority of images depict
elderly people in a clinical environment, looking helpless and lost and with an overemphasis on
the concept of care. These images present an apparently prevailing social attitude to aging and
dementia as undesirable states that lead to weakness, and reliance on the assistance of others.
Although such representations conform to the neuroscientific model of Alzheimer’s disease and
other degenerative diseases, they do not capture the full spectrum of the phenomenon of
forgetting. The images may well be more concerned with feelings and relationships than they are
with the biochemistry of dementia. Through examining such representations, it is the aim of this
paper to demonstrate the lack of parity between cultural understandings of dementia, and the
neurological processes underpinning the condition, and to stress the need for more inclusive
portrayals of aging and memory loss in the media.
