http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1800413

The mentally retarded patient

"The mentally retarded patient is a person who cannot be understood without a view of his psychological situation. I offer this book for that reason. This is a field in great need of intercommunication between professions. Of course, it is of interest to the physician because, due to the large number of people who are affected, his practice may include patients whose capacity to learn can be improved by his skills. Also, the mentally retarded of all ages are subject to illness as are other people. They become patients of the doctor, and their care and their treatment may be influenced by their primary handicap--mental retardation. However, as is well known, a lack of normal intelligence is in itself not an illness. It is rather a psychological handicap which can result in a type of personality that poses special problems for the physician, the educator, the sociologist, the lawyer, the legislator, the family, and the general social welfare and the correctional facilities of a community. To put the situation in a few words: the mentally retarded patient is a person whose disability usually indicates that decisions about him must be made by others. A consideration of what is best for him is unrealistic unless it is based upon an evaluation of the attitudes and the situation of people who influence and control the patient's destiny. In this the mentally retarded patient is somewhat like the "child-patient," but there is a difference. Attitudes toward normal children and the services available for them often are very different from the attitudes and the services available to the mentally retarded"--Foreword. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

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