The History Of Clinical Psychology and its Relationship to Ableism: Using the Past to Inform Future Directions in Disability-Affirming Care

Despite the prominence of psychological testing in the early history of clinical psychology in the US, harms perpetuated by and within the field on disabled communities are seldom considered in clinical psychology's teaching, education, and practice. We review clinical psychology's historical and current relationship to ableism-the systematic discrimination, exclusion, and oppression of people with physical or mental disabilities and chronic illnesses. This paper also discusses the medical model of disability, perspectives on current treatments from members of the disability community, the impacts of disability stigma on professional and academic settings for clinical psychology, and future directions for disability-affirming practices.