Barry, some interesting points.
While I accept that 'people with
learning difficulties' is a useful term - it has after all allowed
people with the label to collectively organise through the
self-advocacy movement, this very term carries with it pervasive
assumptions of inability, deficit and 'other'. I accept that the term
provides some useful starting point, though searching for value-free
terminology appears to be a fruitless task.
Indeed, I think searching for 'value-full' definitions of 'learning
difficulties' fits with a social model of impairment and disability
(put forward really well by Paul Abberley, 1987). Here then we can
unpick the very values that are attached to understandings,
discourses, social practices, modes of intervention, treatment and
care that overlap to threaten placing people with learning
difficulties in a variety of oppressive subject positions.
Take for example, in professional practice, where supporters are
working with people with the label of learning difficulties in
self-advocacy groups. One way of conceptualising who understandings
of the label impact upon support is by looking at interventions of
supporters (or 'advisors'):
'Deficit' - v - 'Capacity' interventions
At one end of this continuum of support, deficit, advisors lean too
far towards presuming incompetence on the part of self-advocates
(Booth and Booth 1992, p65). This is an intrinsic part of oppressive
discourses that position disability in the realms of individual
pathology, personal problem and individual incapability (see Booth and
Booth 1994). Koegel (1986) pessimistically observes that there is a
tendency to assume incompetent behaviour on the part of people with
learning difficulties and to attribute this exclusively to
physiological causes. For Safilios-Rothschild (1981), supporters who
view incompetence in others, help to enhance their own rewards of
'helping' and 'caring'. When someone is unable to do something, we
will do it for him or her, we feel needed, but our control increases
as a result. This was evident in the following vignettes:
Cliff has reported to the group many times of being bullied by
supervisors at work and staff in his group home. Tonight he mentioned
it again. One day after work, the taxi did not turn up as had been
ordered, and he told the group how he angrily reacted to this lack of
punctuality by hitting a staff member. One of the staff advisors said
to another, though loud enough so the group and Cliff could hear,
that, "Cliff is always taking out his anger on others". She told him
that she would put him down for a place on the new 'anger management
course' run at one of the Centres where she works.
Ken told the group that he had asked one of the staff members in his
house if he could make a cup of tea. He had said yes but on boiling
the kettle another member of staff came in and told Ken to stop. Ken
said this was because they thought he might scald himself. The
advisors suggested that he ask the staff in his home to show him how
to make a cup of tea.
No one asked Cliff why he reacted like he did, or took into account
the frustrations he had been feeling. The supporters might have
considered what had made him feel so angry and perhaps supported him
in bringing up his grievances at his workplace and home. No one asked
Ken if he had made a cup of tea before. There was a focus immediately
on what he couldn't do, and ways and means of remedying these
deficits. Ken's capabilities were not considered. When I asked him if
he had made tea before he replied, 'Oh yes, I make it for the mother
when I saw her at weekends'. Probing wider social reasons for
someone's actions opens up numerous causes (Guskin 1963, Koegel 1986,
Booth and Booth 1992). Ken later told me that he had been in
institutions for 22 years and was on the same ward with Cliff, who is
some ten years older, suggesting an even longer spell of
incarceration. These life experiences may explain Cliff's anger and
perhaps he just wanted someone to be on his side. Friedman-Lambert's
(1987) profile of Martin Levine, a Canadian self-advocate, is relevant
here. Levine recalls punching a fellow (non-disabled) employee at a
work placement after being the butt of some hostile ridicule. As
Friedman-Lambert tried to suggest some alternative ways by which
Levine could have handled the situation, Levine replied:
Come on Phil, what would you do? (Ibid. p16).
Cliff continued to get a hard time from some of the supporters. There
appeared to be a generally pervasive assumption of his 'deficits':
Cliff told the group that he had fainted at work because of the heat
and nearly fallen into one of the machines. June, a supporter, asked,
"Is that because you were in the wrong room?" (Social Group, 8th
meeting).
This understanding of people as incompetent can potentially suppress
the formation of a valued collective identity within the group (see
Campbell and Oliver 1996). When self-advocates are trying to help one
another, assuming inabilities can disturb supportive interactions
between peers, discourage risk-taking, self-belief and reinforce
self-appraisals which augment deficits (Wilson 1992, p31):
Lillian said she needed to phone a taxi to get home. One of the
members, Karen, offered to sort it out. "What's the address Lil'?",
she asked, "24 Coathall Lane" replied Lillian. Off Karen went but one
of the supporters, Jurgen, was not happy, "She'll confuse that with
her own address", he warned another supporter. Karen returned and was
asked which address she had given on the phone, replying "24 Coathall
Lane". Even this was not enough for another supporter, June, who now
questioned Lillian's knowledge "I'd best ring Lillian's house to see
that address is right". "No it is", shouted up Jurgen (Social Group,
9th meeting).
I also fell into the trap of treating people as stupid:
Imran found an old lighter in my car. He asked me if he could have it.
I gave it to him with a patronising warning, "Now don't go burning
down your mother's house will you?!" He looked at me with despair and
retorted, "I'm not fucking stupid you know" (Independent Group, ON,
6th meeting).
So labels have consequences. Any thoughts?
Dan Goodley
Dan Goodley
Bolton Institute
Department of Psychology
Deane Campus
Bolton BL3 5AB
Tel : 01204 903676
"Revolution is necessary ... the class which
overthrows the ruling class can rid itself of
the accumulated rubbish of the past and become
capable of reconstructing society". (Marx 1845)
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