From aphasia to dyslexia, a fragment of a genealogy: An analysis of the formation of a ‘medical diagnosis’

Abstract

Having a difficulty with reading, or being unable to read, has not always been a medical problem. In the late nineteenth century, physicians such as (Broadbent 1872; Hinshelwood 1895) became interested in identifying particular bodies with reading difficulties. This article is focused around the question of ‘how’ reading difficulties were formed as a concern for medical researchers. It shall be suggested that the existence of acquired word-blindness as a legitimate medical diagnosis had established the inability to read or difficulty with reading as a medical concern, albeit with a different aetiology. This constituted the practical conditions and established a vocabulary that made congenital word-blindness a technically feasible diagnosis. The medical concern for a difficulty with reading was in most cases a concern with how this difficulty could be overcome. The clinical criteria that were negotiated for congenital word-blindness seem to have been negotiated in relation to rationalities of government concerned with capitalising the population. This article forms part of part a wider project to use analytical concepts drawn from Michel Foucault to help map a genealogy of dyslexia.