History Of Intellectual Disability Research Articles

Not Strictly Business: Freaks and the Australian Showground World

Freak show performers are popularly portrayed as exploited individuals. This article examines the debate within the history of intellectual disability over freaks, and tests the contested positions against the evidence of freak shows in Australia, 1920 to 1950. It argues that these were not exploitative relations or simply business ones, but complex and nuanced two-way paternalistic relations. Freak performers experienced some power and a sense of belonging to the showground world. They consented or assented to their role in that world.

The changing of the guard

This paper considers the impact of service systems on group activities. It describes an inter-professional groupwork project facilitated by a social worker and a community nurse. The project provided an emancipatory experience for a group of adults who had intellectual disabilities. The group was charged with the task of reviewing and updating the recruitment and interview processes used by a 'Learning Disability Partnership Board', when employing new support workers. The paper begins with a brief history of intellectual disability and provides a context to the underpinning philosophical belief that people should be encouraged and supported to inhabit valued social roles no matter what disability they may have. It then identifi es the ways in which the sponsoring health, education and social care services impacted on the creation and development of a groupwork project. It might have been expected that the nature of the intellectual disability would have been the major infl uence on group process. However the paper reveals that organisational constraints had a signifi cant impact on group functioning. Issues including, staffi ng budgets and transport contracts impacted on group process and function. The results of the project show how, with adequate support, people with intellectual disability can make important decisions that have long-reaching impacts on the services.

Treating the ‘idiot’ child in early 20th‐century Ontario

The late 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed the widespread construction of institutions for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Consequently, most historical research into the history of intellectual disability has focused on medical interventions performed inside these quasi‐medical institutions. Recently, however, there has been new interest in community options that existed at the same time and the way in which community care and formal institutions interacted. This paper explores these issues in the context of early 20th century Canada. It will demonstrate that families of ‘idiot’ children sought different types of treatments and care in order to remedy their child's behavioural difficulties and learning delays. In many cases, families resorted to applying for their child's admission to the then largest ‘idiot’ institution in Canada, the Orillia Asylum. However, these admissions often occurred after lengthy and often exhaustive attempts by families to find alternatives to the institution and, indeed, to formal medical treatment.

The 5-HT 2A antagonist MDL 100 907 blocks dizocilpine-induced increases in the firing rate of A10 dopamine neurons

This article highlights issues of misdiagnosis in an African-American, adult clinical population by doing point prevalence, record review study within a comprehensive community mental health center.Psychiatric evaluations of 330 patients were reviewed and clinically identifiable variables of: a) childhood Intellectual Disability (ID), special education, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), or Autism/Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD); b) head injury causing Organic Brain Syndrome (OBS) or Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE); c) a history of chronic substance abuse prior to the development of psychiatric symptoms; or d) childhood trauma causing Anxiety, Depression, and Panic Disorders were tabulated.Two hundred and twenty patients, who were free of the four variables, had a single psychiatric diagnosis and 18 had multiple co-morbid diagnoses. More than 25% (92/330) of the patients had the four variables in their histories. Four of the 92 patients had more than one variable in their history. Of the remaining 88 cases, 42 had psychiatric issues beginning in childhood (28 had history of ID, 4 had history of learning disabilities, 3 had history of ADHD, 7 had histories of Autism/PDD); 9 had histories of OBS or TLE; 20 had histories of substance abuse; and 18 had histories of extensive childhood trauma).Careful attention to common issues in African-Americans can inform the psychiatric diagnostic process pointing to prevention or treatment considerations that would benefit the African-American community at large.