ABSTRACT
Definitions of the disabled child are constructed in interaction with others where a normal appearance depends on an ability to make sense of his behaviour but where that appearance is placed at risk. This chapter argues that parents are held accountable to a conception of normal parenthood which bears a questionable relationship to the experience of any parent. However, since it is actively implemented by agencies officially empowered to control family-related activities, it acts as an official morality which constitutes parents' public appearances. The chapter suggests that parents' constitute the appearance of normal family life because it is as normal parents that others, both informal and formal agencies, treat them. Historically, analyses based on the interpretive paradigm were most developed in studies of deviant behaviour such as crime, drug-addiction and mental illness. 'Inadequate socialization' or a 'broken home' is frequently invoked as adequate explanation of an individual's delinquency, mental illness, drug addiction.
