'A disease that makes criminals': encephalitis lethargica (EL) in children, mental deficiency, and the 1927 Mental Deficiency Act.

Encephalitis lethargica (EL) was an epidemic that spread throughout Europe and North America during the 1920s. Although it could affect both children and adults alike, there were a strange series of chronic symptoms that exclusively affected its younger victims: behavioural disorders which could include criminal propensities. In Britain, which had passed the Mental Deficiency Act in 1913, the concept of mental deficiency was well understood when EL appeared. However, EL defied some of the basic precepts of mental deficiency to such an extent that amendments were made to the Mental Deficiency Act in 1927. I examine how clinicians approached the sequelae of EL in children during the 1920s, and how their work and the social problem that these children posed eventually led to changes in the legal definition of mental deficiency. EL serves as an example of how diseases are not only framed by the society they emerge in, but can also help to frame and change existing concepts within that same society.

[A ''humanitarian duty and a matter of honour for German Jewry": "feeble-minded" Jewish children and the Institution in Beelitz]. / Eine "Pflicht der Humanität und Ehre der deutschen Judenheit": Die "Schwachsinnigenfürsorge" am Beispiel der Israelitischen Erziehungsanstalt für geistig zurückgebliebene Kinder Wilhelm-Auguste-Victoria-Stiftung in Beelitz e. V.

In 1908, in collaboration with the Bnei Briss, the German Association of Israelite Communities founded an institution for intellectually disabled Jewish children in Beelitz with the aim of educating 7-14-year-olds, using therapeutic pedagogy. The institution was part of the philanthropic efforts undertaken by German Jewry in that period. It was set up in the wake of the German Kaiser's call to found more philanthropic institutions, and its establishment is indicative of the efforts at integration being made by German Jewry. In their fund-raising material, the German Association of Israelite Communities stressed the "loyalty and patriotism" of German Jewry and described the establishment of the institution as "a humanitarian duty" and "a matter of honour for German Jewry". It was, therefore, demands from the non-Jewish world that led to the foundation of a Jewish institution; however, its establishment was also symbolic of the struggle against anti-Semitism and indicative both of German Jewry's dissimilation and their efforts at integration. The article investigates the struggle of Jewish parents to have their children admitted to the institution, the philosophy and teaching methods of the director Sally Bein (1881-1942) and his wife Friederike Rebeka Bein (1883-1942), the background of the students, the causes of intellectual disability, as well as the disagreements that occurred between parents, teachers and the director. The article also discusses the successes and failures of therapeutic pedagogy.

Beyond terminology: the policy impact of a grassroots movement.

This article discusses the history of the grassroots movement led by self-advocates and their families to replace the stigmatizing term "mental retardation" with "intellectual disability" in federal statute. It also describes recent and pending changes in federal regulations and policy to adopt the new terminology for Social Security and Medicaid.

The Bath Idiot and Imbecile Institution.

The Bath Institution for Idiot Children and those of Weak Intellect was founded in 1846 by Miss Charlotte White, and opened in April 1846 in two rooms with a resident matron and three pupils. It was unique amongst the Idiot Asylums in being managed by women. In time it became similar to any small private idiot home but the Commissioners in Lunacy forced its reform, without registering it as an idiot asylum. It was taken over by the Bath Municipal Charity Trustees. It eventually became an endowed school, licensed by the Board of Control. This paper describes its history and its eventual control by the Lunacy Commission.

History of mental health services in South Africa. Part XIII. The National Council for Mental Health.

The National Council for Mental Health was born out of the coming together of the Society for the Care of the Feebleminded in Cape Town and a society with similar aims in Johannesburg in 1920. The Council's headquarters were in Cape Town until 1926 and were then moved to Johannesburg. The Council's work has always been essentially informative with the aim of enlightening the public on mental health and of urging the Government to provide better facilities. It has encouraged the establishment of local mental health societies in the main centres, and has subsidised them. It has had a great share in removing the stigma attached to mental illness.