Learning Disabilities as a Non-negative Ontology: Mental Hygiene, Medicalization and Education

Abstract

The field of learning disabilities (LD) is divided between mainstream and contextualist perspectives of LD. Both perspectives view LD as a negative ontology (Baker, 2002). A negative ontology refers to disabilities as inherently problematic; individuals labelled as disabled will inevitably have poorer outcomes (Campbell, 2000). This paper argues that a unified view of LD begins with viewing LD as a non-negative ontology. To understand LD as a non-negative ontology requires first a critical consciousness of the historical formations of LD as a negative ontology. In particular, this paper provides an overview of various historical arguments on how medicalization and the mental hygiene movement framed LD as a negative ontology.