Murray K. Simpson

The parent trap: marriage, parenthood and adulthood for people with intellectual disabilities

One of the most telling indicators of change in the status of people with intellectual disabilities is in the regulation of their sexuality, reproduction and parenting. There is far greater recognition of certain basic rights that people with intellectual disabilities share with everyone else. This article traces the broad shifts in thinking about sexuality and parenting and intellectual disability over the past 100 years or so. The changes in the past 30 years are given particular attention as rights to marriage, then sexuality and, most recently, parenting came to be widely recognized. Without questioning the value of these changes, the article shows how they also exhibit changing targets and methods of regulation and not simply progressive moves away from control per se. The extent to which access to sexuality and parenthood can be construed as a diminution of the significance of intellectual disability as a social status is therefore questioned.

Developing mental health social work for asylum seekers: A proposed model for practice

• Summary: This article provides a critique of the epidemiological research that currently informs mental health social work with asylum seekers. Most of the literature that currently informs social work practice with asylum seekers with mental health difficulties comes from psychiatric studies which are largely underpinned by a medical model. • Findings: It is argued that aetiological accounts, predominantly deriving from psychiatry and based largely on biological causation, are untenable. A more comprehensive model is presented, which considers both biological causation and a social perspective and locates the mental health difficulties experienced by asylum seekers in a much wider context. The model is further divided into pre-, post- and migratory stress factors. • Application: The aim is to provide social work with a practical tool to make sense of the mental health difficulties faced by asylum seekers, help in the development of assessment tools, and help multidisciplinary agencies to define the roles and remit of staff as well as contribute towards the development of policy and practice.

Alcohol and Elderly People: An Overview of the Literature for Social Work

This article attempts to highlight the pressing need for social work to take more account of the existence of alcohol problems being experienced by many elderly people. Surveying the available sketchy data, it would appear that perhaps as many as 15% of elderly social work clients may have alcohol related problems. The article continues by considering whether a discernable pattern of elderly drinking is identifiable, concluding that the greatest problems relate to the severity rather than numbers having alcohol related problems, also coupled with an inability to access existing treatment services. Additionally, the article contends that there are ethical pitfalls in promoting interventions which rest upon stereotypical assumptions or purely technical considerations. In conclusion some of the main implications of the survey for social work practice are drawn out.

From Savage to Citizen: Education, Colonialism and Idiocy.

In constructing a framework for the participation and inclusion in political life of subjects, the Enlightenment also produced a series of systematic exclusions for those who did not qualify: including ‘idiots’ and ‘primitive races’. ‘Idiocy’ emerged as part of wider strategies of governance in Europe and its colonies. This opened up the possibility for pedagogy to become a key technology for the transformation of the savage, uncivilised Other into the citizen. This paper explores the transformative role of pedagogy in relation to colonial discourse, the narrative of the wild boy of Aveyron—a feral child captured in France in 1800—and the formation of a medico‐pedagogical discourse on idiocy in the nineteenth century. In doing so, the paper shows how learning disability continues to be influenced by same emphasis on competence for citizenship, a legacy of the colonial attitude.

Just Say 'No'? Alcohol and People with Learning Difficulties

This paper analyses critically the scant literature which exists on the role of alcohol in the lives of people with learning difficulties. Though the research evidence is largely insecure, it does seem relatively clear that people with learning difficulties drink considerably less and abstain in higher numbers than the general population. In spite of this, the literature is predominantly characterised by a focus on the potential dangers of excessive alcohol consumption. In contrast, the possibility that a great many people with learning difficulties may have their access to alcohol debarred is not considered to be a problem requiring attention. It is argued that this is based on a failure to appreciate the cultural significance of alcohol for most people, and that the discourse on learning difficulties is being underpinned by a concern with physical, but not cultural access.

Othering intellectual disability: Two models of classification from the 19th century

This paper considers two models of idiocy: one based around quantitative deviation from the norm and the other on qualitative variation. In doing so, the paper shows three things. First, it shows that apparently contradictory strategies coexist within the same discourses. Second, both cases produce the idiot as Other. Third, that the production and reproduction of Otherness creates difficulties in policing the conceptual boundary between the normal and the abnormal. The maintenance of boundaries does not adhere to either the essential nature of intellectual disability or logical coherence. Instead it is something that has to be perpetually accomplished. This has important consequences for the linkage between psychological models of intellectual disability and social inclusion. The paper concludes that no discourse on intellectual disability can eliminate Otherness.

Alcohol and intellectual disability: Personal problem or cultural exclusion?

The small number of studies on alcohol use among adults with intellectual disabilities shows their usage is significantly less than average, with very high levels of abstinence. Despite this, the literature focuses almost to exclusion on the very small number of people who do have problems, and neglects to question the possible reasons for this differential pattern of consumption. This article reviews the extant literature, showing that it constructs an inherently pathological view of drinking in people with intellectual disabilities, framing it entirely within a discourse of risk and as a personal behaviour, rather than as a social and cultural one. As a counter to this perspective, the article opens up new lines of exploration around the significance of abstinence, why it might occur to such a high degree and whether, in fact, it might itself be and also point towards the cultural exclusion of people with intellectual disabilities.

Developmental Concept of Idiocy.

In dominant definitions of mental retardation, researchers have insisted on the diagnosis being restricted to conditions manifested during the developmental period. However, even in the 19th century, this was only one of several conceptual options, some of which did not exclude adult brain injury or dementia. Events in the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly with the growth of institutions, scientific study, and, later, intelligence testing led to these other options being excluded. Here, I discuss the proposal that current definitions are highly contingent on factors that are neither essential nor necessary. Although not arguing for any specific changes to current definitions, I do argue that theoretical options should be kept open and that dominant ones should be questioned.

Normalisation and the psychology of 'mental retardation'

The 1950 and 1960s witnessed a revival of interest among psychologists in mental retardation closely associated with the development of a behaviourist model. These developments effected a decisive break in the discourse of retardation by inserting a ‘behaviour’ component into the definition of retardation. This strengthened claims by psychology of professional primacy vis-à-vis medicine. The objective of professional assertion helped create the conditions in which the service model of Normalisation2 took root in North America and, to a lesser extent, the UK. As a semi-autonomous discourse, Normalisation provided a vehicle in which elements of contradictory discourses, principally psychology and interactionism, could be appropriated. The interventions which emerged from this comprised a dual strategy of enhanced social integration and the more precise definition and identification of mental retardation.

Learning disability and inclusion phobia: past, present and future

course, how a society views work is, in part, a product of specific modes of production and so it is not clear whether current notions of work can be challenged without offering an alternative vision of the economy more broadly. This is obviously beyond the scope of this collection but these chapters successfully raise these and other important questions. in sum, this collection of essays offers a broad overview of the current policy context experienced by disabled people in a variety of countries whilst summarising key debates around the notion of work and the contribution that disabled people make to society. The volume certainly succeeds in bringing together quite different perspectives but the reader is left to draw out the implications and connections across the two types of contributions. Taken together, Disabled People, Work, Welfare is an important intervention into these debates and will be useful for those wishing to understand these issues in an international context.