Diminished People: Problems and Care of the Mentally Retarded, by fifteen authors, edited by Norman R. Bernstein, M.D. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1970, 340 pp., $15.50

Abstract

I have the feeling that probably no one can put together a book on the subject of mental retardation which will satisfy many other people. An author in this field invariably reveals his own personal bias in his writing and editorship, and this inevitably clashes in some measure with the emotion-laden special attitudes of many of the more experienced of his potential readers. It should also be pointed out that as an area of professional interest, mental retardation has an unsatisfactory nomenclature, imperfect standards, a set of uneven disciplinary alliances, and a massively unfulfilled mission.