Professionals' naming of intellectual disability, past and present practice and rationales

Abstract

The study illuminates four research questions: What terms for the diagnosis ICD10: F70-79 do Norwegian professionals utilize in their work? Which changes of terminology have professionals experienced? How do professionals explain such changes? Is there a substantive explanation? A semi-structured qualitative interview guide was used on a sample of 41 informants. The main findings are: (1) Different terms are in use; (2) two major changes in naming are observed by the informants: (a) during the 1970s from ‘feeble-minded’ to ‘mental developmental disability’, and (b) after year 2000 from ‘mental developmental disability’ to ‘developmental disability’; (3) professionals are in doubt as to which term to use; (4) they offer different explanations as to why terms change; and (5) five thematic discourses are identified, among which it is argued that the impact of ethical training of professionals is stronger than the others. Underlying these five causes it is hypothesized that they all may be induced by deeper scientific and structural changes in society.

Keywords:

• naming
• mental
• developmental disability
• changes of terminology
• explanations
• discourse analysis and perspectives
• Norway

Notes

1. A literal translation of the Norwegian concept utviklingshemmet or utviklingshemming is hard to do precisely. The meaning is either ‘underdeveloped’, or ‘sub-developed’ or more to the letter ‘developmentally inhibited’ or ‘developmental inhibition’. In this article I have vacillated between using a literal translation from Norwegian to English in order not to violate vital gradations of meanings, findings, and stance in the Norwegian context. However, to communicate better with the international and English-speaking circle of readers and to avoid harming and confusing the actors of this field unnecessarily I have decided to use the meaning closest to already well-established assignations; i.e. I have anglicized the two Norwegian terms: ‘psykisk’ to ‘mental’ and ‘utviklingshemming’ to ‘developmental disability’. This translation also comprises the parallel Danish term ‘Udviklingshæmming’ and Swedish ‘utvecklingsstörning’. The complete expression ‘mental developmental disability’ is comprehensive, and hard to express. In the text I therefore in some places to use the older term ‘mental retardation’ as a synonym.

2. Mental retardation is a condition of arrested or incomplete development of the mind, which is especially characterized by impairment of skills manifested during the developmental period. These contribute to the overall level of intelligence, i.e. cognitive, language, motor, and social abilities (http://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/bluebook.pdf).

3. The types of institutions are not described due to consideration of anonymity.