The historical context

Abstract

Introduction As a young PhD student writing nearly twenty-five years ago on the historical development of service provision, I started my account with the following somewhat naive statement: Unlike other physiological or biochemical disorders, such as damaged limbs, which have been observed and classified to something approaching an agreed level, mental disorder, and specifically mental handicap, has been subject to wide disagreements among those connected with it. These disagreements, in fact, go beyond classification, and on to causation, prognosis, and the most acceptable method of treatment. The mere use of the term ‘mental handicap’ immediately places the author into a certain sector ofthis spectrum ofopinion, whereas the use of alternatives such as mental subnormality, mental retardation, mental deficiency etc., would have located him elsewhere.