The World Turned Upside Down: Wonder, Disgust, and the Alienation Effect

Abstract

History shows alarming shifts in the way that people with intellectual disabilities have been regarded. Locke doubted whether they could be counted among the human, while Rousseau hailed them as unspoiled children who could help us be better; the eugenicists despised them as perpetuating "feeble-mindedness," while the religious praised them as holy innocents. Throughout, however, they have been seen metaphorically, as symbolic figures who incite hatred or inspire wonder, but rarely as real people. This article, written by the father of a young man with severe disabilities, rejects such thinking. The author explains how intellectual disabilities work as a Brechtian "alienation effect" and challenge our core system of values and explores how they make us reconsider much of what we take for granted.