Explaining Social Policy: The English Mental Deficiency Act of 1913

Discussion here focuses on the origins of mental retardation policy in early twentieth-century England & the specific question of the creation & politicization of the social problem of feeble-mindedness. Four factors led people to believe that feeble-mindedness was one of the major social problems of the time: (1) the workings of the educational system, (2) contemporary definitions of poverty & the poor, (3) the scientific understanding of the nature of mental deficiency, & (4) contemporary ideas on the problem of feeble-minded women. Analysis was made of the work of the Royal Commission on the Care & Control of the Feeble-Minded (1904-1908), the debates surrounding the passage of the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act, & the role of eugenics' pressure groups. Feeble-mindedness was thought to be a major source of other social problems such as poverty, unemployment, delinquency & prostitution. Social reformers of the early twentieth century hoped to solve these latter problems by dealing with the problem of feeble-mindedness. AA.