Understanding suffering: Utermohlen's self-portraits and Alzheimer's disease.

Human suffering is a universal experience simply defined as, or associated with, physical or psychological pain and distress. Faculty seeks ways to help its students understand and ease their patients' suffering. The author uses Alzheimer's disease as an exemplar of suffering and describes a creative teaching strategy using 9 self-portraits that chronicle American-born artist William Utermohlen's deterioration from the disease.