In my book “When Words Have Lost Their Meaning: Alzheimer’s patients communicate through art” I show how patients reveal  their suffering through their artwork.   In a wonderful article today in the New York Times (Self-Portraits Chronicle a Descent Into Alzheimer’s), Professor Patricia Utermohlen talks about the deterioration in her husband’s art during his illness.  His expressive portraits show a wide range of emotions such as “sadness,  anxiety, resignation and feelings of feebleness and shame.” One of the emotions that the article doesn’t mention is paranoia.  When Alzheimer’s sufferers gradually lose their ability to recognize people, they feel themselves surrounded by strangers. An acquaintance, whom they do not recognise,  may come and hug them hello.  But they cannot work out who is friend and who is foe so they become confused and fearful. 

You might want to take a look at the cover of my book at http://www.AlzheimersArt.com  to see my mother’s rendition of a famous Matisse painting.  The eyes are glancing to the side with suspicion, checking out the world around her which no longer makes any sense.  At least she had the pictures through which she could express her distress.