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history
Waves of history roll over the years

The history of learning disability has its own stories that reflect Some historians questioned the very
expectations and views of the times, with a gradual move to idea that “learning disability” was a stable
historical concept – something that meant
include the people themselves, says Susanna Shapland the same regardless of era.

CF Goodey led the challenge, arguing
that what we might today understand as
or generations, historians ignored the learning disability first emerged in
history of people with learning late-17th century religious movements. He
Fdisabilities, choosing instead to write suggested the concept had fluctuated over
about madness or of “great men” who time to reflect contemporary concerns
had lost their reason. and fears, rather than any universal truths
The belief that those known variously about learning disability or the people
through the ages as natural fools, idiots, who might have been given that label.
changelings, imbeciles, morons, cretins, Treating each iteration of the concept in
mental defectives, subnormals, the its historical context in this way also
feeble-minded, the mentally handicapped, questioned the narrative of progress.
retarded or impaired, the learning, This approach also argued against the
intellectually or developmentally disabled, belief that each previous era was wholly
the developmentally delayed, those with cruel or wrong in its treatment of people
learning difficulties and even the otherly with learning disabilities, and that only
abled were devoid of reason, meant that the current way of doing things was
they were often seen as somehow less correct. This left space to analyse and
than human, and were passed over even criticise the status quo, using the stories
when other marginalised groups were of the past to illuminate the present.
receiving attention from historians.
The history of learning disability has The fourth wave? The historian activist
come in several “waves”. The self-advocacy and collaborative
CF Goodey argued learning disability emerged methods of the social-historical wave,
First wave: the medical gaze as a concept in early modern religion then combined with the cultural wave’s
The first people to write about this history fluctuated to reflect contemporary concerns invitation to critique present policies and
were medical clinicians and social practices, can be seen in the next phase:
scientists. Dominated by US writers and The lives of learning-disabled people in the rise of the historian activist.
therefore focused on US issues, this wave the community before the asylum era Historian activists are people with
started in 1904 with physician Martin W were also re-examined, and found to learning disabilities who are looking into
Barr’s book Mental Defectives: Their involve complex tales of varying degrees of the history for themselves, learning about
History, Treatment and Training. integration rather than a straightforward how what happened in the past relates to
Mental Defectives and the works that picture of marginalisation and abuse. their lived experiences, and identifying
followed it cast the medical profession as In a further departure, this work was continuing forms of oppression. Using this
the great saviours of people with learning informed by the voices of people with knowledge, they produce their own
disabilities, who were in turn stereotyped learning disabilities themselves. histories in a variety of formats including
as passive (and voiceless) victims of a cruel The Social History of Learning Disability exhibitions, videos and performances, and
life of abuse and misery that ended only Research Group, based at the Open also fight for change. n
with their “rescue” by the asylum system University, brought together academics l This article is based on: Jarrett S, Tilley E.
and its doctors. This imagined history was and people with learning disabilities to The history the history of learning
used to justify routine mass incarceration. co-produce oral histories, including disability. British Journal of Learning
In the UK, this narrative was most notably activist Mabel Cooper’s life history. Disabilities. 2022;50(2):1-11
adopted by social work academic Kathleen In step with the self-advocacy movement,
Jones, who said the beaten, chained “idiots” this collaborative approach enabled people Further information
were rescued from the community by the with learning disabilities to bring their lived Atkinson D, Jackson M, Walmsley J. Forgotten
enlightened Lord Shaftesbury and his 1845 experiences of official policy and practice lives: exploring the history of learning
disability. BILD; 1997
County Asylums Act. front and centre, challenging the official Barr M. Mental defectives: their history,
record using their individual life stories. treatment and training. Blakiston’s; 1904
Second wave: social history Digby A, Wright D (eds). From idiocy to mental
and collaboration Third wave: cultural history and context deficiency, historical perspectives on people
A challenge to this dominant, medicalised The social history movement was both with learning disabilities. Routledge; 1996
approach came in the 1990s. Rejecting progressive and influential, but still Goodey CF. A history of Intelligence and
“intellectual disability”. Ashgate; 2011
the assumptions of the previous era, the received criticism from a variety of Jarrett S. Those they called idiots: the idea of
social history movement instead critiqued quarters, one of which formed the next the disabled mind, from 1700 to the present
asylums and long-stay institutions. wave of historical interpretation. day. Reaktion; 2020

30 Vol 35 No 4 | Summer 2022 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk