Temporal orientations of Young-onset Parkinson’s disease: Exploring relationships, personhood and narratives

This is an anthropological dissertation that explores the lived and imagined experiences of those living with young-onset Parkinson's disease (YOPD). Following diagnosis, people with YOPD are often left with a sense that what was once ‘known’ is no longer. In this thesis, I investigate how living with a neurodegenerative chronic illness, that has an uncertain prognosis, is experienced and imagined and how this creates a sense of being different from others and a previous self. This sense of being different or othered is shaped by the ways society views chronic illness and the experience of living with it over time. To assist in exploring the themes of uncertainty and alterity, the future, both imagined and certain, is placed at the centre of this research on those living with YOPD.