Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Mental Retardation in the United States

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University of California Press, 1994 M03 16 - 356 páginas
James W. Trent uses public documents, private letters, investigative reports, and rare photographs to explore our changing perceptions of mental retardation over the past 150 years. He contends that the economic vulnerability of mentally retarded people (and their families), more than the claims made for their intellectual or social limitations, has determined their institutional treatment.

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Introduction
1
IDIOTS IN AMERICA
7
EDWARD SEGUIN AND THE IRONY OF PHYSIOLOGICAL EDUCATION
40
THE BURDEN OF THE FEEBLEMINDED
60
LIVING AND WORKING IN THE INSTITUTION 18901920
96
THE MENACE OF THE FEEBLEMINDED
131
STERILIZATION PAROLE AND ROUTINIZATION
184
THE REMAKING OF MENTAL RETARDATION OF WAR ANGELS PARENTS AND POLITICIANS
225
On Suffering Fools Gladly
269
Notes
279
References
303
Index
347
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Página 9 - Now Johnny all night long had heard The Owls in tuneful concert strive; No doubt too he the Moon had seen ; For in the moonlight he had been From eight o'clock till five. And thus, to Betty's question, he Made answer, like a Traveller bold, (His very words I give to you,) " The Cocks did crow to-whoo, to-whoo, And the Sun did shine so cold.
Página 17 - We do not propose to create or supply faculties absolutely wanting ; nor to bring all grades of idiocy to the same standard of development or discipline ; nor to make them all capable of sustaining, creditably, all the relations of a social and moral life ; but rather to give to dormant faculties the greatest...
Página 7 - Simple Simon met a pieman Going to the fair; Says Simple Simon to the pieman, "Let me taste your ware." Says the pieman to Simple Simon, "Show me first your penny;" Says Simple Simon to the pieman, "Indeed, I have not any." Simple Simon went to look If plums grew on a thistle; He pricked his fingers very much, Which made poor Simon whistle.
Página 58 - ... educated, — that the reflective power exists within them, and may be awakened by a proper system of instruction ; that they may be raised from the filth in which they grovel to the attitude of men ; that they may be taught different arts which will enable them to gain an honest livelihood ; and that, although their intelligence may never, perhaps, be developed to such a point as to render them the authors of those generous ideas and great deeds which leave a stamp upon an age, yet, still, they...
Página 148 - Johnny Jones has lost a leg, Fanny's deaf and dumb; Marie has epileptic fits, Tom's eyes are on the bum. Sadie stutters when she talks, Mabel has TB Morris is a splendid case Of imbecility. Billy Brown's a truant, And Harold is a thief; Teddy's parents gave him dope, And so he came to grief.
Página 161 - ... danger to the community. Feebleminded women are almost invariably immoral and if at large usually become carriers of venereal disease or give birth to children who are as defective as themselves. Every feebleminded person, especially the highgrade imbecile, is a potential criminal, needing only the proper environment and opportunity for the development and expression of his criminal tendencies.
Página 7 - SIMPLE Simon met a pieman Going to the fair; Says Simple Simon to the pieman, "Let me taste your ware." Says the pieman to Simple Simon, "Show me first your penny"; Says Simple Simon to the pieman. "Indeed I have not any." Simple Simon went a-fishing For to catch a whale; All the water he had got Was in his mother's pail. Simple Simon went to look If plums grew on a thistle; He pricked his fingers very much, Which made poor Simon whistle A PLEASANT SHIP I SAW a ship a-sailing, A-sailing on the sea,...
Página 151 - For although the public schools in America are quite free from the odor of charity, and were inaugurated and conducted as a matter of public policy, they are greatly indebted to the educational results obtained from the care of defective and delinquent children. Certainly the training of the brain through the coordinating muscles, was first painstakingly worked out by those dealing with children whose minds could not be approached through the more conventional methods of education. At the present...
Página 43 - Vallée, and have seen, with no less gratification than astonishment, nearly one hundred fellow-beings who, but a short time since, were shut out from all communion with mankind, who were objects of loathing and disgust, — many of whom rejected every article of clothing,— others of whom, unable to stand erect, crouched themselves in corners, and gave signs of life only...
Página 193 - ... an offense to the Community; when I see the tranquil well ordered life she is leading, her industry and usefulness in the circle in which she moves, and know that surgery has been her salvation from vice and degradation, I am deeply thankful to the benevolent lady whose loyalty to science and comprehensive charity made this operation possible.

Acerca del autor (1994)

James W. Trent, Jr. is Associate Professor of Sociology and Social Work at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

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