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Mental Retardation & Genuineness
JosephW
Veteran
in Philosophy
I was at the bookstore the other day with my girlfriend of 4 years and we were sitting down looking for a true crime book worth reading, as we were browsing a guy looked of about the age of 25 turned down the isle and started looking at the books at the start of the isle, I glanced over because nobody had by in awhile, however when I glanced, I had to look at him again, and I got this immediate feeling of somebody so genuine, innocent, thoughtful, caring, just a good human being... I turned to the books and kept browsing while this thought was still on my mind, he eventually got close to us during his browsing moving down the isle and asked my girlfriend her name, I knew right away he obviously had a huge problem as far as his cognitive skills were concerned, everything he uttered was slow and basic, but by looking at him I wouldn't have necessarily guessed he had a problem. He continued to ask my girlfriend basic questions such as "do you go to school?", "how old are you?" "do you like reading?", "what genre?", things of this nature, the whole conversation with him dragged on for over 2 hours, and though I wanted to leave, I just felt so bad for this guy, but at the same time I was thinking, maybe he should feel bad for me, this was the kind of person that no bad thoughts come to his mind, has no sense of worry, no conception of money, no lying, no stealing, no anger, has no desire of sex, no vengeful thoughts, no stress of life, this person just goes along with life just enjoying it and is always happy, I couldn't bare to just cut this guy off and say hey look we gotta go, so I just let him talk to her for 2 hours while listening, apparently it made him happy talking to her, he would ask me questions too... But mainly her because she has that kind of outgoing talk to anybody personality, where I don't really have that and I guess he sensed that.
I sure this is a normal thing, I know it is actually, this was just the first time I conversed with someone that was mentally retarded and thought I would share the experience as I personally think it is interesting.
I sure this is a normal thing, I know it is actually, this was just the first time I conversed with someone that was mentally retarded and thought I would share the experience as I personally think it is interesting.
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Anyway, as I was leaving I was trying to pick up my daughter's floaties, back pack, swimming noodle etc. and he came over and offered to help. I could tell he was a little different but thought it was sweet he offered. He ended up carrying things out to my car and putting them into the back for me. He then stood and smiled and waved at us as we drove away.
Very sweet young man......
My stepsister has Down's Syndrome. She is definitely an honest and genuine person, but she has pitfalls like the rest of us. She steals things, she gets in fights with roommates (she lives in an assisted living apartment place), she has lost her job because she hit people. She's actually pretty bright and she knows these things are wrong. She is almost 30 but operates more around the mentality of an 8 year old. So, understands right and wrong, and consequences but often doesn't have the ability to foresee and doesn't as easily learn from her consequences. But she's incredibly happy and loving and gives her smiles and love to everyone she meets. She participates in Special Olympics and it's SUCH an amazing event to volunteer with or even just to watch. I think everyone should go and see the courage displayed there.
It's tough reconciling an overarching label like that - for me it harks back to a period where various conditions were packed into one big 'backward' box.
It was the above that I found questionable - it sounds more like an assumption of what that person was experiencing based on an assessment of that person's outward ability (or lack of in this case) to interact in line with an expectation of an average interaction.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/mental-retardation
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_retardation
Apparently it is also called Intellectual disorder aswell, I guess either one could be taken offensively, but it's called what it's called.
I'd tend to give Joseph the benefit of the doubt here based on this:
"The terms used for this condition are subject to a process called the euphemism treadmill. This means that whatever term is chosen for this condition, it eventually becomes perceived as an insult. The terms mental retardation and mentally retarded were invented in the middle of the 20th century to replace the previous set of terms, which were deemed to have become offensive. By the end of the 20th century, these terms themselves have come to be widely seen as disparaging and politically incorrect and in need of replacement.[1] The term intellectual disability or intellectually challenged is now preferred by most advocates in most English-speaking countries. The AAIDD have defined intellectual disability to mean the same thing as mental retardation.[2] Currently, the term mental retardation is used by the World Health Organization in the ICD-10 codes, which has a section titled "Mental Retardation" (codes F70–F79). In the future, the ICD-11 is expected to replace the term mental retardation with intellectual disability, and the DSM-5 is expected to replace it with intellectual developmental disorder.[3][4] Because of its specificity and lack of confusion with other conditions, mental retardation is still sometimes used in professional medical settings around the world, such as formal scientific research and health insurance paperwork." (wikipedia).
Also, I myself have autism (Aspergers, actually) and I'm still subject to the hindrances of being human (greed, anger, pride, wrath, etc.). I'm no more genuine just because I have a neurological condition.
What happens with the terms going out of favor is that they get abused, then the abusive usages become more commonly used, then the words become associated with their abusive usages. I am blunt-affective partly due to the Depakote and other meds, sorry if I have offended.
But sugar coating softens the blunt blows for the sensitive ones. If you use a term they accept, you are seen as sympathetic-- somewhat at least.
The clinical term itself is of course harmless. But because many other people have taken the word to be harmful and insulting, that is the meaning it carries for many, many people now. You remind me very much of Randall in Clerks II wanting to take back the term "porch monkey." Some things change because they need to change. Refusing to accept that makes you irrational, not everyone else.