“This popular book about medical research on aging is exciting and anticipated for any reader, because its subject is almost taboo. This great work calls into question the manipulation of ageing by major economic powers (especially with pharmaceutical laboratories). If we cling to the cold and medical side of the issue, we forget aging to large extent is a natural phenomenon rather than an inevitable one.” - France Net Infos

“Throwing a pebble into the pond, the Van der Lindens particularly denounced the so-called Alzheimer's empire - a drug-related biomedical environment and the growing medicalization of aging. Why is it important to diagnose Alzheimer's disease, yet there are no effective drugs to treat Alzheimer's patients? This book draws on much of the research on Alzheimer's and dementia. Though intended for professionals, it is also exciting and accessible to the general public.”- L’Hebdo

“We must thank the Van der Lindens, two brilliant neuropsychologists who fought biomedical reductionism, especially the essentialism of Alzheimer's. We hereby encourage all readers of the paper to read this book, which provides us with rich content for practice and reflection.”- John Libbey EUROTEXT

★ Bestselling and frequently-sold book in Belgium and France! A five-star review book on Amazon France!
★ Recommended by 27 French-language media reports!

Predictions of how many old people will suffer from dementia by 2050 often raise alarmist rhetoric, predicting a "tsunami" that will overwhelm families and caregivers while imposing an unbearable economic burden on society. To avert this "dementia crisis," the dominant biomedical view is that as many resources as possible should be invested in neurobiological research, diagnosis, and drug treatment in an attempt to delay and eventually cure dementia.
The main purpose of this book is to explain the social and cultural context in which this biomedical approach to dementia has developed, an approach that has led to the increasing medicalization of aging. It also aims to describe the limitations of this approach and to show how brain and cognitive aging are influenced by various factors (biomedicine, psychology, society, culture, etc.).
It then identifies the impact of this shift in opinion. The author argues that more resources should be allocated to prevention and the development of psychological interventions and evaluations based on the personality of the elderly. The goal is to help this group maintain a sense of meaning in their lives, a sense of well-being and dignity at all times, as well as to maintain their true place in society, calling for a cultural change in the long-term residential structure of senior citizens.
This book, dedicated to a humanitarian approach to aging, concludes with a series of reflections on the citizenship and rights of seniors.

Martial Van der Linden
A Doctor in psychology, researcher at the Catholic University of Leuven and professor of psychopathology and neuropsychology at the University of Geneva and the University of Liège. Part of his work is to study the effects of aging on daily functioning from a multifactorial and integrative perspective. He also has extensive clinical experience, having spent more than 15 years diagnosing and treating patients with brain injury in the neuropsychology department of the Bavarian Hospital in Liège.
He and Anne-Claude Jouilleret Van der Linden founded an institute in their city called VIVA (Assessing and Integrating Aging in a Different Way) to promote preventive measures for problematic brain aging locally.

Anne-Claude Juillerat Van der Linden
A Doctor in Psychology, clinical neuropsychologist and lecturer at the University of Geneva. For 20 years she has been a neuropsychologist at the Centre of Memory Counselling at the Geneva University Hospitals.
She and Martial Van der Linden founded an institute in their city called VIVA (Assessing and Integrating Aging in a Different Way) to promote preventive measures for problematic brain aging locally.