Conclusion

Abstract

I have argued that the formation of the diagnostic category dyslexia was not just the invention of a psycho-medical category, but also the invention of a technology of power. This technology was then deployed in assemblage with a variety of other technologies, such as the norm, intelligence tests, medical examinations and many others, as part of a machinery of government intended to perform minute and intricate operations. In the preceding discussion I have described the formation and solidification of the diagnosis that would become dyslexia. I have outlined the various different operations it performed in the hands of writers such as Hinshelwood (1895), Thomas (1905), Witmer (1907a, 1907b) and Rutherford (1909). The discussion that follows summarises the main arguments of the book, establishes the historical and theoretical contributions it has made, argues for the importance of producing other genealogies of impairment categories and makes some speculative remarks about the character of reading in the twenty-first century.