Dementia and the Sense of Self with Philip Ryan

About this episode

Philip Ryan discusses his father's dementia diagnosis and its implications on memory and identity through the lens of Buddhist teachings.

Philip Ryan is Tricycle’s executive editor, and he has worked at Tricycle on and off for the past thirty years. In the Spring issue of Tricycle, he wrote an article, "Old Friend," about his father’s dementia diagnosis and the questions it has raised about memory, impermanence, and identity. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Ryan to discuss how Buddhist teachings on the mind have helped him to make sense of his father’s diagnosis, why we are ultimately unknowable to each other and ourselves, and how dementia is the perfect illustration of the truths of impermanence, suffering, and nonself—or maybe a mockery of those truths.

People in this episode

Host: James Shaheen

Guest: Philip Ryan

Topics covered

• dementia
• Buddhist teachings
• identity
• memory
• impermanence
• nonself

Keywords

• dementia
• Buddhism
• identity
• memory
• impermanence
• suffering
• nonself

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Tricycle

Books & works: Old Friend

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