You are What You Drink: Evidence of Socialized Incompetence in the Life of a Mildly Retarded Adult

Abstract

The last two decades have been characterized by a growing appreciation of the ways in which socio-cultural factors influence the phenomenon of mental retardation. Whereas we once viewed mental retardation solely through biomedical and psychological perspectives and thus restricted our attention to individuals and their symptoms, we now more readily acknowledge the extent to which mental retardation is socially defined and the very strong impact which the social world surrounding an individual exerts on his or her life course. This in turn has made us realize that answers to questions such as ‘Who eventually is identified as retarded?’ and ‘What will their lives be like?’ are neither fixed nor the exclusive function of individual capability. Who gets labeled, and what happens to them once they are labeled, is very much tied to the social, cultural, and economic contexts in which they find themselves. As a result, we have come to accept that a full appreciation of mental retardation demands the understandings which a socio-cultural perspective can yield.