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Intellectual disability and the myth of the changeling myth
Author(s) -
Goodey C. F.,
Stainton Tim
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/jhbs.1032
Subject(s) - mythology , intellectual disability , folklore , sociology , elite , psychoanalysis , psychology , literature , art , law , anthropology , political science , psychiatry , politics
This article investigates the historical sources for the idea of the “changeling” or substitute child as an explanation for congenital intellectual disability. Pre‐modern sources for this idea are elite and theological as much as popular and folkloric, nor do they refer to intellectual disability in any sense recognizable to us. Rather, both the concept of intellectual disability and the notion of a transhistorical changeling myth emerge from the historical core of modern psychology. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.