Fighting Alzheimer’s with poetry - the full potential of literary therapy

Poetry as medicine, literature as a therapy - these are not ideas taken from utopian dreams, but have become reality in actual care facilities. One forerunner in this field is American poetry slammer Gary Glazner who is also founder of the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project. This semester, Mr. Glazner will be holding virtual lectures at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU) in which he will take his students on a journey to fathom out the full potential literature can have in memory rehabilitation. Members of the public are welcome to attend the online kick-off lecture on Wednesday, May 18. This lecture is organized by Prof. Dr. Christine Ott (representative of the Chair of Didactics of German Language and Literature) and Prof. Dr. Friederike Reents (Chair of Modern German Literature).

Former poetry slammer and literary therapist Gary Glazner has pioneered the use of literary-therapeutic methods in care and social work. He founded the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project (APP) in which he develops, tests and researches techniques for memory rehabilitation based on performing poetry. In the past, Glazner has repeatedly collaborated with researchers on the effects of “poetry interventions”. Among other prizes, the APP was awarded the MetLife Foundation Creativity and Aging in America Leadership Award”. In many care facilities and nursing homes in the United States, poetry interventions have become a standard service. In comparison with other countries, Germany has a lot of catching up to do in terms of theoretically and empirically substantiating existing projects and adapting and further developing them.

With the course starting this summer semester, professors Christine Ott and Friederike Reents want to bring Gary Glazner’s expertise to Eichstätt. With his approach that is practical while well-substantiated by research, he will teach students what they need to know about literary therapy and memory rehabilitation.

The course will focus on literary interventions for people with dementia aimed at giving them back their creative agency, thereby improving their self-image and the sometimes rather difficult relationship with their caregivers. The course will also try to identify useful and responsible possibilities for cooperations between school classes and care facilities and what learning opportunities for the participating school students and patients might arise on these occasions.

Besides Gary Glazner, the students will also meet with Heidelberg neurophysiologist Prof. Dr. Andreas Draguhn, German poetry slammer Pauline Füg who incidentally is an Eichstätt psychology graduate, and practical theologian Prof. Dr. Andrea Rinn.

The kick-off event will take place on Wednesday, May 18 from 2:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. Guests can log on via zoom at (https://kuei.zoom.us/j/6942139567) or on campus (Room 304, Kollegiengebäude A, Ostenstraße 26-28, Eichstätt).