Psychoanalysis and disability : an exploration of the utility of psychoanalytic methods and analyses in the interrogation of social responses to impairment

Abstract

The utility of a critical psychoanalytic approach in interrogating societal responses to disability is discussed, making use of experiential accounts of visually impaired university students gathersd via group analytic methods. The re-integration of psychoanalytic thinking and methods into disability studies is contextualised within a review of approaches to disability, including the ""medical"" and ""social"" models, poststructuralist and discourse-oriented accounts, and phenomenological research. The application of psychoanalytic concepts within critical disability studies is described, incorporating defence mechanisms associated with responses to disability, and an analysis of such issues as the discourses of ""independence"" and ""acceptance and denial"", altruistic behaviour surrounding disability, and the psychic need for ""otherness"". Internalised oppression within disability is considered.