Read Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Intellectual Disability in the United States

Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Intellectual Disability in the United States

James W. Trent

4.9/5 (29626 ratings)

Description:Half-wits, dunces, dullards, and idiots: though often teased and tormented, the feebleminded were once a part of the community, cared for and protected by family and community members. But in the decade of the 1840s, a group of American physicians and reformers began to view mental retardation as a social problem requiring public intervention. For the next century and a half, social science and medical professionals constructed meanings of mental retardation, at the same time incarcerating hundreds of thousands of Americans in institutions and "special" schools. James W. Trent uses public documents, private letters, investigative reports, and rare photographs to explore our changing perceptions of "feeble minds." From local family matter to state and social problem, constructions of mental retardation represent a history of ideas, techniques, and tools. Trent contends that the economic vulnerability of mentally retarded people and their families, more than the claims made for their intellectual or social limitations, has determined their institutional treatment. He finds that the focus on technical and usually psychomedical interpretations of mental retardation has led to a general ignorance of the maldistribution of resources, status, and power so evident in the lives of the retarded. Superintendents, social welfare agents, IQ testers, and sterlizers have utilized these psychological and medical paradigms to insure their own social privilege and professional legitimacy. Rather than simply moving "from care to control, " state schools have made care an effective and integral part of control. In analyzing the current policy of deinstitutionalization, Trent concludes it has been more successful in dispersing disabled citizens than in integrating them into American communities. Inventing the Feeble Mind powerfully shatters conventional understandings of mental retardation. It is essential reading for social workers, psychologists, historians, sociologists, educatorWe have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Intellectual Disability in the United States. To get started finding Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Intellectual Disability in the United States, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

Pages: —

Format: PDF, EPUB & Kindle Edition

Publisher: —

Release: —

ISBN: 0199396183

Description: Half-wits, dunces, dullards, and idiots: though often teased and tormented, the feebleminded were once a part of the community, cared for and protected by family and community members. But in the decade of the 1840s, a group of American physicians and reformers began to view mental retardation as a social problem requiring public intervention. For the next century and a half, social science and medical professionals constructed meanings of mental retardation, at the same time incarcerating hundreds of thousands of Americans in institutions and "special" schools. James W. Trent uses public documents, private letters, investigative reports, and rare photographs to explore our changing perceptions of "feeble minds." From local family matter to state and social problem, constructions of mental retardation represent a history of ideas, techniques, and tools. Trent contends that the economic vulnerability of mentally retarded people and their families, more than the claims made for their intellectual or social limitations, has determined their institutional treatment. He finds that the focus on technical and usually psychomedical interpretations of mental retardation has led to a general ignorance of the maldistribution of resources, status, and power so evident in the lives of the retarded. Superintendents, social welfare agents, IQ testers, and sterlizers have utilized these psychological and medical paradigms to insure their own social privilege and professional legitimacy. Rather than simply moving "from care to control, " state schools have made care an effective and integral part of control. In analyzing the current policy of deinstitutionalization, Trent concludes it has been more successful in dispersing disabled citizens than in integrating them into American communities. Inventing the Feeble Mind powerfully shatters conventional understandings of mental retardation. It is essential reading for social workers, psychologists, historians, sociologists, educatorWe have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Intellectual Disability in the United States. To get started finding Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Intellectual Disability in the United States, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

Special Offer | $0.00

Special Offer! | $0.00

Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Intellectual Disability in the United States

Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Intellectual Disability in the United States

More Books

The Manliest Man: Samuel G. Howe and the Contours of Nineteenth-Century American Reform

The Manliest Man: Samuel G. Howe and the Contours of Nineteenth-Century American Reform

The Manliest Man: Samuel G. Howe and the Contours of Nineteenth-Century American Reform by James W. Trent (2012-08-10)

The Manliest Man: Samuel G. Howe and the Contours of Nineteenth-Century American Reform by James W. Trent (2012-08-10)

Exigencies

Exigencies

Seishin hakujaku no tanjoÌ„ to henboÌ„. 1

Seishin hakujaku no tanjoÌ„ to henboÌ„. 1

Beyond High School: A Psychosociological Study of 10,000 High School Graduates

Beyond High School: A Psychosociological Study of 10,000 High School Graduates

Defectives at the world's fair: Constructing disability in 1904

Defectives at the world's fair: Constructing disability in 1904

Seishin hakujaku no tanjoÌ„ to henboÌ„ : amerika ni okeru seishin chitai no rekishi.

Seishin hakujaku no tanjoÌ„ to henboÌ„ : amerika ni okeru seishin chitai no rekishi.

Catholics in College

Catholics in College

Catholics in college;: Religious commitment and the intellectual life

Catholics in college;: Religious commitment and the intellectual life