Marion sad:
>My
understanding of the social model is that you can
only be 'disabled' if you
have an 'impairment' - disabled people are oppressed
on the grounds of
impairment. Whichever we we look at it, and whether
we like it or not,
'having an impairment' depends on 'medical
diagnosis' of that impairment by
medical professionals who are 'experts' in the field
of that particular
impairment.>
Well, there's also the perception of impairment to
contend with. I think many of us would argue that in
a "deaf culture" situation, deaf people aren;t
impaired (heck, *I'm* the one who was impaired the
last time I was at a meeting where the majority of
attendees were deaf, since I don't know any BSL.) The
majority/non-deaf culture would still perceive a deaf
person as "impaired" regardless of setting, and
discrimination could well follow.
To take this analogy into what I think other posters
have called neurodiversity, there's a whole world of
"impairments" that exist in comparison to a defined
norm--which may not be an actual norm. Simply having
the label of, say, bipolar disorder, can be a cause
for discrimination and other forms of mistreatment,
social exclusion, etc. even when the person concerned
is functioning reasonably well in either a setting
that fits the person, or in a mainstream setting. In
a case like this, disablement can occur solely
because of perception, because of perception plus
actual impairment, or because of impairment alone.
What all three possibilities have in common is
disablement--social exclusion, discrimination,
maltreatment, etc.--and it's that disablement that we
need to address from a social model perspective. I'd
argue that some of the help will probably come from
the medical world (in other words, I wouldn't argue
that mental illness is strictly a social construct--I
know there are others who would disagree with me
there, and I accept their right to have that opinion)
but I don't see that as incompatable with recognising
that medicine doesn't fix social systems, repair
relationships, or remove the stigma that a mental
health label can bring.
________________End of message______________________
Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List
are now located at:
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.
|