The Bottom Line
By J. David Smith; 192 pages. Subtitle: How the Label "Retarded" Has Denied Freedom and Dignity to Millions
Both a history lesson on the many ways people with intellectual disabilities have been abused and dehumanized over the past century, and a personal account of the author's attempt to make a difference in the life of one intellectually disabled man, Ignored, Shunned, and Invisible reinforces the need for fostering respect and inclusion for all people.
Pros
- Provides history lesson on mistreatment of people with intellectual disabilities
- Includes personal account of author's friendship with an intellectually disabled man
- Shows how society has often seen the control or elimination of weaker citizens as a benefit
- Demonstrates how language used to describe people can devalue and dehumanize them
Cons
- Text is easy to read, but sometimes meandering
- Lacks an emotional punch when discussing upsetting cases of inhumanity
- The author's friend John is a passive figure to whom things are done, for better or worse
Description
- Introduction: Speaking of Mental Retardation
Chapter 1: What Are You Going to Do About It? - Chapter 2: Minimally Decent Samaritans
Chapter 3: Feebleminded: John Lovelace, Patient #6839 - Chapter 4: "Patient Is Full Code
Chapter 5: Becoming Invisible - Chapter 6: Broken Ties: "Addressee Unknown
Chapter 7: Looking Backward, Looking Forward - Chapter 8:
Headaches, Smoking, and Fights: Leaving the Home
Chapter 9: Defining Disability Up and Down - Chapter 10:
John Lovelace and the Mercantile Theory of Mental Retardation - Chapter 11: Darwin's Last Child: Disability, Family, and Friends
Chapter 12: "Fairview Is Nice to Me" - Chapter 13: Ethics, Powerlessness, and Informed Consent
- Chapter 14: Blindness and Finding Yourself in Purgatory
- Chapter 15: Policies, People, and No Room at the Graveyard
Epilogue
Guide Review - Book Review: Ignored, Shunned, and Invisible
When I originally saw this book and its subtitle of "How the Label "Retarded" Has Denied Freedom and Dignity to Millions," I thought it might be a manifesto for the current effort to strike the R-word from everyone's vocabulary. Instead, it's a look back at how people with intellectual disabilities have been treated and mistreated over the last century in the U.S., with even well-meaning movements like deinstitutionalization doing more harm than good. Reading tales of forced sterilization, infant euthanasia, the use of children with intellectual disabilities for medical experiments, and warehousing in squalid adult homes makes the issue of language seem benign by comparison.
The root problem is the same, though -- the devaluing and dehumanizing of a segment of the population on the belief that a specified standard of intelligence is the sole indicator of human worth. Author Smith writes about the mistreatment of people classified as mentally defective, based on testing or behavior or no particular reason at all, both in the historical context of eugenics and the benevolent intent of scrubbing society of unsavory aspects, and the specific personal context of John Lovelace, a man he befriended at a camp for the intellectually disabled.
The book offers plenty to feel angry and heartsick about, and to reinforce the determination to work for respect, inclusion, and humane treatment for people with intellectual disability. I wish the text had a little more heat -- there's a certain scholarly detachment to the historical material, and even the more personal story of the authors involvement with John is one of advocacy rather than emotional attachment. There's no action plan for making this right. It's a worthy lesson, though, in understanding how far we've come and how far we still have to go.
