October’s episode is about the importance of the choice of a bag and its contents. This was inspired by an episode of Thinking Allowed (BBC Radio 4) where a paper was discussed about handbags and identity in dementia, and I give an outline of what they had to say. It made me think more about the bag in Drawing the Ideal Self and the way a bag and its contents illustrate the construing of self - both non-ideal and ideal. You can read the paper free using the link below.

Women with dementia and their handbags: negotiating identity, privacy and 'home' through material culture.

Use, C. & Twigg, J. (2014) Journal of Ageing Studies, Aug; 30:14-22

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/191458846.pdf

The psychology of stuff and things. 

Christian Jarrett on our lifelong relationship with objects

https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-26/edition-8/psychology-stuff-and-things

What’s in your man bag? https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandhealth/gallery/2008/mar/28/fashion1

Identity Kit series of photos of the bags of homeless people by Moyra Peralta

 http://www.people.virginia.edu/~ds8s/moyra/identity.html

Interview with Moyra Peralta about her photos of homeless people: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2001_50_mon_05.shtml

Handbags as time capsules of self-identity:

http://sites.tufts.edu/handbags/timeline/