The Social Construction of Intellectual Disability

By Mark Rapley

Subjects: Interpersonal Relations, Group identity, Social interaction, Social Identification, Mentally handicapped, Social perception, Geistig behinderter Mensch, Nonfiction, Interaction sociale, Persons with Mental Disabilities, Mental Illness, Sociology of disability, Personnes ayant une déficience intellectuelle, Social Perception, Mental Health, Mentale retardatie, Geistige Behinderung, Mental retardation, Sociale aspecten, Soziale Konstruktion, Identité collective, Soziale Identität, People with mental disabilities, Psychology, MEDICAL, Perception sociale, PSYCHOLOGY

Description: Intellectual disability is usually thought of as a form of internal, individual affliction, little different from diabetes, paralysis or chronic illness. This study, the first book-length application of discursive psychology to intellectual disability, shows that what we usually understand as being an individual problem is actually an interactional, or social, product. Through a range of case studies, which draw upon ethnomethodological and conversation analytic scholarship, the book shows how persons categorized as 'intellectually disabled' are produced, as such, in and through their moment-by-moment interaction with care staff and other professionals. Mark Rapley extends and reformulates current work in disability studies and offers a reconceptualisation of intellectual disability as both a professionally ascribed diagnostic category and an accomplished - and contested - social identity. Importantly, the book is grounded in data drawn from naturally-occurring, rather than professionally orchestrated, social interaction.