ABSTRACT

In this chapter, I problematize independence as a taken-for-granted goal of rehabilitation and explore the idea of movements in and out of various dependencies as inherent to the human condition. Within health and disability studies, independence is conceptualized in many different ways that are often a source of debate: freedom, self-determination, sovereignty, self-sufficiency, living alone, having choice, and control. But at its most fundamental, independence relates to the modernist notion of humans as fixed individual beings, composed of separate minds that are encased in biological bodies. Questioning this foundational assumption opens up a world of possibilities for rethinking human differences. In what follows, I draw from my previous work (Gibson 2006, 2014; Gibson et al. 2012) to explore a radical notion of interdependence that decenters the individual. I consider how actions are made possible through the making and breaking of dependencies reconfigured as “assemblages” that are formed, split, reformed, and abandoned to multiple effects. In so doing, I suggest how independence goals can be re-imagined to explore various assemblages in rehabilitation practices.