ABSTRACT
History sidles forward crab-like and we can never step into the same river twice. These two images argue that a linear presentation might be misleading and forewarn against what are too loosely called the lessons of history. The concept of disability is construed as a form of interactivity between various factors, and evolutive and dynamic forms of interactiveness. The model for disability can only be regarded as systemic. Infirmity found itself on the side of the irrational. Infirmity played a major role in a growing awareness and consideration of the overriding need for social solidarity. Infirmity is the broken mirror of one’s positive self-image. Facing infirmity, individual and group alike feel ill at ease, afraid, tend to shy away from misery and deviance, and are confronted by the finitude and fragility of their condition. One of the great fantasies that haunts us is that of omnipotence, including the illusion of immortality.
