Some Psychological Problems in "Institutionalising" Defectives

The types of psychological problem noted in this article appear to have two common qualities?the likelihood of being ignored, and an urgent need of consideration. Their likelihood of being ignored probably arises from two main causes?long-standing blindness to their very existence, or a hurried and even half-conscious forgetting of them whenever they stir the minds of administrators in, and authorities upon, mental deficiency. The urgent need of consideration is patent to the psychologically trained observer at present, and will be much aggravated by the many imminent expansions in Britain of just those conditions which incubate it. The present discussion is based upon five years' observation of institutional life, of widely varying kinds, among mentally defective persons of all ages, of all grades and types, and of all social classes. The points chiefly selected are those liable to receive least notice, and certainly to arouse least attack, by casual visitors to our institutions, be those visitors even medical and educational experts. 2 MENTAL WELFARE For the purposes of the present discussion, it is suggested that common ground be reached first in agreement that mentally defective persons should not only be kept alive and cared for, but that they should live under those conditions best calculated to encourage and maintain all-round development. It is generally believed that the community life of an institution offers the most satisfactory provision for low and middle-grade defectives?the idiots and imbeciles?whether of school age or older-And high-grade defectives ?the feeble-minded?are apparently being recommended in increasing numbers for institutional residence and treatment. In its widest interpretation , the term ' institutional life,' in discussing defectives, must imply any form of group life, in colony, home-school or even in the very intensive boarding-out of patients say in every house in a village or district. But in Britain the movement is increasingly towards provision of very large homes and training centres, and this form of institution will be foremost in mind for the present. Now, in surveying these huge concerns, with their thousand or so patients and pupils, their payroll of two to three hundred names, their vast expenditure of money and energy in myriad activities, the routine of the individual defective is easily forgotten or even overlooked altogether. And in experience, the valuable opportunities offered, and the wise allowances made in institutional life, are merely being given on the one hand, while everyday essential chances of development and outlets …