History of mental retardation: an essay review.

The history of mental retardation previously focused on residential institutions and the ideas of professionals. Given that the vast majority of people with mental retardation lived in their family homes or other locations in their communities, this emphasis has been misleading. Recent historical studies by James W. Trent Jr.; Philip M. Ferguson; Steven Noll; and the British scholars in David Wright and Anne Digby's collection, From Idiocy to Mental Deficiency, have opened up the field by describing the complicated relationships between families and the state, by outlining the development of lay concepts of mental disabilities, and by acknowledging the wide diversity of experiences of people with mental disabilities.