The Problem of Mental Deficiency: Eugenics, Democracy, and Social Policy in Britain C. 1870-1959

ISBN-13: 9780198206927 / Angielski / Twarda / 1998 / 368 str.

Mathew Thomson; Matthew Thomson

Opis

This is the first full study of the great alarm about "mental defectiv es" in Britain between 1870 and 1959, and the resulting policies of se gregation, community care, and sexual sterilization. Mathew Thomson ex amines the origins of these policies in central government and shows h ow they were put into practice by health professionals and local autho rities. He reveals how policy-makers avoided extremist measures such a s compulsory sterilization (introduced in Germany and parts of the US during this period), not for reasons of liberal principle but because of the socially conservative and anti-interventionlist nature of Briti sh political culture.

Recenzje

If this detailed study does not provide as clear an account of the sterilization campaign as one might desire, its great strength lies in its careful portrayal of the continual rounds of conflicts and negotiations that underlay the treatment of the mentally deficient ... Thomson makes a good case that the very existence in Britain of so many competing groups prevented it from embracing the extremist eugenic measures of neighbouring states.