‘It Made Me Realize that’s How I Was’: Identity Management by People with Diagnoses of ‘Learning Disability’ and ‘Mental Illness’

Abstract

Individuals with a diagnosis of ‘learning disability’ are some of the most marginalized and oppressed people in society (Department of Health, 2009). (For consistency the term ‘learning disability’ will be used throughout the chapter; however, the terms ‘intellectual disability’ and ‘mental retardation’ could easily replace them). They frequently live in substandard housing, have access to limited social networks and experience high rates of abuse (Disability Rights Commission, 2004). Over the last 30 years people who have displayed distress, misery and madness, in response to their circumstances, have also been given a label of psychiatric disorder. This shift in practice, heralded as scientific progress, has not been placed under close scrutiny. In this chapter we ask what people with a dual diagnosis of ‘learning disability’ and ‘mental illness’ have to say about this.