A Case for Vindication: Psychoanalytic Insights on Disability

Abstract

                In theorizing disability, scholars have often tended to appropriate conceptual paradigms from a variety of different disciplines, ranging from sociology to psychology, literary theory to cultural studies. It is however noteworthy that they have invariably tended to express a disposition of marked reluctance with regard to extrapolating paradigms from the field of psychoanalysis, in spite of the immense influence it commands. This of course is neither baffling nor unwarranted for the truth is psychoanalytic insights regarding disability for the most part characterize it in an essentially negative light, which upon scrutiny reveal themselves to be tellingly lopsided and unjustified. The expressed objective of this paper is to expose this pervasive trend of disparagement that informs psychoanalytic discourses on disability, via critically reviewing some notable concepts put forth by leading thinkers in the field. The ultimate goal is to vindicate disability from the blemish cast on it by psychoanalytic insights over the years.