The Social Construction of Intellectual Disability - Softcover

Rapley, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521005299 ISBN 13: 9780521005296

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Intellectual disability is usually thought of as a form of internal, individual affliction, little different from diabetes, paralysis or chronic illness. This study, the first book-length application of discursive psychology to intellectual disability, shows that what we usually understand as being an individual problem is actually an interactional, or social, product. Through a range of case studies, which draw upon ethnomethodological and conversation analytic scholarship, the book shows how persons categorized as 'intellectually disabled' are produced, as such, in and through their moment-by-moment interaction with care staff and other professionals. Mark Rapley extends and reformulates current work in disability studies and offers a reconceptualisation of intellectual disability as both a professionally ascribed diagnostic category and an accomplished - and contested - social identity. Importantly, the book is grounded in data drawn from naturally-occurring, rather than professionally orchestrated, social interaction.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Rapley is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Murdoch University. His work applies discursive psychology to questions of power, in particular the interactional and rhetorical production of persons with intellectual disabilities, the 'mentally ill' and Aboriginal Australians. His most recent books are Quality of Life Research: A Critical Introduction (2003) and, with Susan Hansen and Alex McHoul, Beyond Help: A Consumer's Guide to Psychology (2003).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521005299
• ISBN 13: 9780521005296
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 260