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Intellectual disability: A conceptual history, 1200-1900

Online ISBN:
9781526136213
Print ISBN:
9781526125316
Publisher:
Manchester University Press
Book

Intellectual disability: A conceptual history, 1200-1900

Patrick McDonagh (ed.),
Patrick McDonagh
(ed.)
faculty member in the Department of English at Concordia University, Montreal and co-founder of the Spectrum Society for Community Living in Vancouver
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C. F. Goodey (ed.),
C. F. Goodey
(ed.)
Honorary Fellow in the Centre for Medical Humanities at the University of Leicester
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Tim Stainton (ed.)
Tim Stainton
(ed.)
Professor in the School of Social Work and Director of the Centre for Inclusion and Citizenship at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver
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Published online:
20 September 2018
Published in print:
28 February 2018
Online ISBN:
9781526136213
Print ISBN:
9781526125316
Publisher:
Manchester University Press

Abstract

This collection explores how concepts of intellectual or learning disability evolved from a range of influences, gradually developing from earlier and decidedly distinct concepts, including ‘idiocy’ and ‘folly’, which were themselves generated by very specific social and intellectual environments. With essays extending across legal, educational, literary, religious, philosophical, and psychiatric histories, this collection maintains a rigorous distinction between historical and contemporary concepts in demonstrating how intellectual disability and related notions were products of the prevailing social, cultural, and intellectual environments in which they took form, and themselves performed important functions within these environments. Focusing on British and European material from the middle ages to the late nineteenth century, this collection asks ‘How and why did these concepts form?’ ‘How did they connect with one another?’ and ‘What historical circumstances contributed to building these connections?’ While the emphasis is on conceptual history or a history of ideas, these essays also address the consequences of these defining forces for the people who found themselves enclosed by the shifting definitional field.

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