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The Origin And Nature Of Our Institutional Models

From: Changing Patterns in Residential Services for the Mentally Retarded
Creator: Wolf Wolfensberger (author)
Date: January 10, 1969
Publisher: President's Committee on Mental Retardation, Washington, D.C.
Source: Available at selected libraries

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(d) There is much emphasis on use of drugs (chemical straight jackets?), rather than human interaction, to control and shape behavior.

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(e) The placement of residential centers far from population centers and towns can, in some cases, be a correlate of a "keeping" or "controlling" desire.

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5. Subhumans are perceived to "live like animals," i.e., to soil themselves and their habitat. This results in design of an environment that can be cleaned easily, frequently, efficiently, and on a massive scale:

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(a) Walls and floors may be made of a material that is virtually impossible to "deface," i.e., scratch, soil, stain, etc., and that can be hosed down (like in a zoo); there may be drains in the floors of living areas.

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(b) Beds or bed stalls may be designed to be picked up and immersed in cleansing solutions in their entirety by means of cranes.

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(c) Resident bathing facilities may be designed for efficient cleansing of large numbers of residents by small numbers of caretakers; there may be slabs, hoses, and mass showers, rather than installations conducive to self-conducted cleansing or the learning thereof.

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6. Typically, subhuman retardates are either not expected to learn or develop appreciably, or the growth potential of retardates is seen as so small as to be irrelevant, since it will never lead to complete "humanization." In other words, the state of subhumanity is perceived as being essentially permanent. In consequence, the environment is designed to maintain a resident's level of functioning but not to provide opportunities for further growth and development.

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7. Animals have no rights; it follows that retardates perceived to lack humanity are also perceived to lack certain rights. Among these are:

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(a) The right to privacy. Toilets and showers for the retarded may lack partitions, curtains, or doors. Bedrooms often lack doors, not to mention that the bedrooms themselves may be lacking. Where doors exist, they almost always have window panes or so-called "Judas-windows" (complete with wire-enmeshed glass or peepholes). Private visiting space may be nonexisting.

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(b) The right to property. Institutionalized retardates may have few or no possessions. Often they have no space to store possessions, or lack ready access to such space or control over it. Residents are usually denied the privilege of locking up their possessions, carrying the key, and using it without restrictions. Children typically do not have use of personalized clothing, and children of the same size (sometimes of various sizes, may share the same pool of clothes. All of these points have implications as to architectural design, especially regarding space allocations and selection of built-in furniture. Residents may be seen as not entitled to pay for their work, or to carry actual currency even if they do own money. "Poverty in a mental hospital is no less dehumanizing than in a slum. . . " (Bartlett, 1967, p. 92).

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(c) The right to communicate freely. There may be censorship of incoming and outgoing mail, although some forms of censorship may not be perceived as constituting censorship. Telephone usage may be severely restricted. Visiting is usually restricted for several weeks after admission.

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(d) The right to individuality. As described so well by Vail (1966), residents are regimented and managed in groups, even where individual management might be feasible. For example, residents are mass-showered where education for individual showering is possible; residents may even be mass-toileted, which accounts for the fact that some living units have more toilet seats than would be needed for, say, an equivalent-sized college dormitory.

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8. The assumption that the retardate lacks esthetic sense is a subtle but important corrolary -sic- of the subhuman view. This corrolary results in the creation of unattractive residential living environments, since funds spent on beauty are seen as wasted on retardates. The drab, monotonous design and furnishing of retardates' residences (sometimes in contrast to staff living quarters) is usually a testimony to this view. Rarely does one see furniture that is both comfortable and attractive in lines and color in institutions for the retarded, and even yet more rarely is there furniture-zoning so that the furniture reflects the mood and function of different living areas in an attractive fashion.

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The degree to which retardates can appreciate beauty is really only one of two important issues involved here. The second important issue is that observers' (e.g., the public's or employees') attitudes are shaped by the context in which retardates are presented to them. Even if intellectual limitation does impair retardates' esthetic sense, to deprive their environment of beauty is likely to predispose an observer to view them as subhuman.

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Caretakers sometimes claim that drabness is due to lack of funds, but this is often untrue because much beauty can be provided at little or no cost. In my own institutional work, I recall trying to mount attractive pictures on walls of several children's living units that had a severely deprived atmosphere. There was no support for this project from the institutional power echelons; nursing and housekeeping services objected to the "defacing" of the walls; and the pictures which actually got put up were pulled down (by personnel) within days.

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