Of mental disabilities and labels
Jan. 22nd, 2007 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thatcrazycajunNational Public Radio's All Things Considered program today had a segment on what people who suffer from what used to be called "mental retardation" want to be called. A text transcript is now posted here.
Hearing it on my way home from work got me thinking. A representative of a professional medical group in the field that changed its name to accommodate the desires of those in this situation remarked that, when asked what they prefer to be called, they usually answer with their first names: "I'd like to be called 'Liz.'" It seems to me that no matter what label you slap on them, however carefully parsed to avoid pejoratives, they don't like anything that denotes them as different from others in society who are not like them. One can understand their wanting to be treated fairly, but that is not the same thing as treating them as though they have no difference in cognitive ability at all from the rest of us, which is clearly and demonstrably not true.
Am I misinterpreting a desire to avoid prejudice as one to be in denial about one's own limitations? And what on God's green Earth should we use to describe their condition, when it is necessary to do so (as in certain contexts, it inevitably will be)? I'd like to read other folks' thoughts on the matter.
Hearing it on my way home from work got me thinking. A representative of a professional medical group in the field that changed its name to accommodate the desires of those in this situation remarked that, when asked what they prefer to be called, they usually answer with their first names: "I'd like to be called 'Liz.'" It seems to me that no matter what label you slap on them, however carefully parsed to avoid pejoratives, they don't like anything that denotes them as different from others in society who are not like them. One can understand their wanting to be treated fairly, but that is not the same thing as treating them as though they have no difference in cognitive ability at all from the rest of us, which is clearly and demonstrably not true.
Am I misinterpreting a desire to avoid prejudice as one to be in denial about one's own limitations? And what on God's green Earth should we use to describe their condition, when it is necessary to do so (as in certain contexts, it inevitably will be)? I'd like to read other folks' thoughts on the matter.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 03:24 am (UTC)I think the issue really is one of labeling, which is acceptable if a gateway to services but unacceptable as prejudice. Personally, I thought the piece was wonderful, but one of my projects has been the history of special education, so it's up my alley.