Culture and Retardation: Life Histories of Mildly Mentally Retarded Persons in American Society

✍ Scribed by Robert D. Whittemore, L. L. Langness, Paul Koegel (auth.), L. L. Langness, Harold G. Levine (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 219
• Series: Culture, Illness, and Healing 8
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Mental retardation in the United States is currently defined as " ... signif­ icantly subaverage general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior, and manifested during the development period" (Grossman, 1977). Of the estimated six million plus mentally retarded individuals in this country fully 75 to 85% are considered to be "func­ tionally" retarded (Edgerton, 1984). That is, they are mildly retarded persons with no evident organic etiology or demonstrable brain pathology. Despite the relatively recent addition of adaptive behavior as a factor in the definition of retardation, 1.0. still remains as the essential diagnostic criterion (Edgerton, 1984: 26). An 1.0. below 70 indicates subaverage functioning. However, even such an "objective" measure as 1.0. is prob­ lematic since a variety of data indicate quite clearly that cultural and social factors are at play in decisions about who is to be considered "retarded" (Edgerton, 1968; Kamin, 1974; Langness, 1982). Thus, it has been known for quite some time that there is a close relationship between socio-economic status and the prevalence of mild mental retardation: higher socio-economic groups have fewer mildly retarded persons than lower groups (Hurley, 1969). Similarly, it is clear that ethnic minorities in the United States - Blacks, Mexican-Americans, American Indians, Puerto Ricans, Hawaiians, and others - are disproportionately represented in the retarded population (Mercer, 1968; Ramey et ai., 1978).

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xv
The Life History Approach to Mental Retardation....Pages 1-18
Sarah: The Life Course of a Down’s Syndrome Child....Pages 19-32
Life History in Progress: A Retarded Daughter Educates Her Mother....Pages 33-45
You are What You Drink: Evidence of Socialized Incompetence in the Life of a Mildly Retarded Adult....Pages 47-63
It Wasn’t Fair: Six Years in the Life of Larry B....Pages 65-80
Living in the Real World: Process and Change in the Life of a Retarded Man....Pages 81-99
A Case of Delabeling: Some Practical and Theoretical Implications....Pages 101-126
Social Support and Individual Adaptation: A Diachronic Perspective....Pages 127-153
Theodore V. Barrett: An Account of Adaptive Competence....Pages 155-189
Conclusions: Themes in an Anthropology of Mild Mental Retardation....Pages 191-206
Back Matter....Pages 207-212

✦ Subjects

Anthropology; Public Health/Gesundheitswesen