Abstract
In August 2014, Gillian Bennett, an 83-year-old with dementia, deliberately ingested a lethal drug. She posted a ‘right-to-die manifesto’ on her blog1 ‘deadatnoon’ just prior to her suicide, explaining that she didn’t want to become an ‘empty husk’, ‘a vegetable’, a living ‘carcass’, who would needlessly in her view cost tens of thousands of dollars ‘eating up the country’s money but not having the faintest idea who I am’ (‘Goodbye’, 2014). In stark contrast, David Hilfiker,2 a 69-year-old retired physician, describes the time since his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease as ‘one of the happiest periods in my life’ (‘About’, 2014).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Charise, A. (2012). ‘“Let the reader think of the burden”: Old age and the crisis of capacity’, Occasion: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, 4, 1–16.
Chivers, S. (2011). The Silvering Screen: Old Age and Disability in Cinema. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Cohen-Shalev, A. (2009). Visions of Aging: Images of the Elderly in Film. Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press.
Dima, V. (2014). ‘Sound, death and Amour’, Studies in French Cinema, 15 (2).
Fukushima, C. (2012). ‘Preparing for the ‘Silver Tsunami’ across the globe’, Long-Term Living Magazine. 24 September 2012.
Gravagne, P. (2013). The Becoming of Age: Cinematic Visions of Mind, Body and Identity in Later Life. Jefferson: McFarland.
McNicoll, T. (2013). ‘Oscar’s 85-Year-Old Darling: A Talk with Emmanuelle Riva of Amour’, Academy Awards. The Daily Beast, 15 February.
Oppers, S. E, Chikada, K., Eich, F., Imam, P., Kiff, J., Kisser, M., Soto, M., Sun, T. et al. (2012). Chapter 4: The Financial Impact of Longevity Risk. Global Financial Stability Report: The Quest for Lasting Stability. World Economic and Financial Surveys, pp. 1–31.
Quinodoz, D. (2014). Amour. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 95 (2), 375–383.
Vanden Bosch, J. (2013). ‘Amour Killing?’, The Gerontologist, 53 (3), 518–19.
Amour. Dir. Michael Haneke. Perf. Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emannuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert. Films du Losange. (2012). Itunes.
Bennett, G. (2014). ‘Goodbye & Good Luck!’, 18 August. Available at: deadatnoon.com. Accessed 10 October 2014.
Gullette, M. M. (2014). ‘Euthanasia as a caregiving fantasy in the new longevity’, Age, Culture, Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 1(1). http://ageculturehumanities.org/WP/issue-1/. Accessed 15/05/2015.
Hilfiker, D. (2013). ‘The Last Post… (?)’, 30 October. Available at: Watching the Lights Go Out: A Memoir of an Uncertain Mind. Accessed 10 October 2014.
Hilfiker, D. (2013). ‘Letting Go of Alzheimer’s (1)’, 30 October. Available at: Watching the Lights Go Out: A Memoir of an Uncertain Mind. Accessed 10 October 2014.
Hilfiker, D. (2013). ‘Now it Begins’, 30 January. Available at: Watching the Lights Go Out: A Memoir of an Uncertain Mind. Accessed 10 October 2014.
Hilfiker, D. (2013). ‘About My Cognitive Impairment’. Available at: DavidHilfiker.com. Accessed 10 October 2014.
Long, C. (2010). ‘Martin Amis and the Sex War’, 14 January, Sunday Times. Accessed 16 October 2014. http://www.martinamisweb.com/reviews_files/ma_sex_war1.pdf
The ‘Silver Tsunami’ of Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Health Watch. WPEC-TV CBS 12. Accessed 16 October 2014.
Please see figshare.com for supplementary materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1367703
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Sally Chivers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chivers, S. (2015). Empty Husks: Age, Disability, Care, Death, and Amour. In: Wassmann, C. (eds) Therapy and Emotions in Film and Television. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137546821_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137546821_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-54681-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-54682-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)