ABSTRACT
The history of learning disability has only recently come into vogue as a topic worthy of study in its own right. For many years it has been treated as a subsidiary topic in other histories, such as the history of psychiatry,2 the history of social hygiene and eugenics,3 the history of special education,4 or the history of administrative change.5 A similar
situation prevails in sociology and social policy. Goffman’s ideas on institutions,6 for example, have been highly influential, yet Goffman based none of his work in learning disability hospitals or hostels. Similarly, Michel Foucault, a great inspiration for late twentieth-century social historians, refers far more to practices around people with mental illness or criminal tendencies than to learning disability.
