ABSTRACT
All blind men respond to this identity in some way, even if only to dispute it; for those who internalize it, this putative social identity becomes a personal identity. There are two principal mechanisms of personal encounters through which the blind are socialized. First, relates to preconceptions about blindness that people who can see bring to encounters with blind men, and Second to the reactions of the sighted during the encounter. The preconceptions that the sighted bring to situations of interaction with the blind are of two sorts. On the one hand, there are stereotypic beliefs about blindness and the blind that they have acquired through the ordinary processes of socialization in our culture; and, on the other, there is the fact that blindness is a stigmatizing condition. Blindness is a stigma, carrying with it a series of moral imputations about character and personality. Many of the interactions that involve the sighted and blind men become relationships of social dependency.
