Disability as Rhetorical Prosthesis

There's a good book by Sharon Snyder and David Mitchel entitled "Narrative Prosthesis" which argues that disability is often used as a device of characterization in literature and film.

The fact is that all too often disability is utilized as a rhetorical crutch by able bodied people when they want to create a dramatic effect : disability becomes a pejorative and often terrifying symbol. Disability is almost never used as a symbol of empowerment. 

I was put in mind of this last evening at a meeting of the Iowa City school board when a trend emerged during a community pow wow about the local schools. One of the subjects being discussed by the citizens in attendance was the potential relocation of enrollment boundaries for the two city high schools.

I was flat out "gob smacked" by what came next.

More than one of my neighbors stood up and said with a straight face that asking kids to go to another school would induce depression, stress, and perhaps even more severe forms of mental illness.

"There it is," I thought. "Another instance of disability as a pejorative spectacle for the already terrified masses."

When disability is a narrative prosthesis we're never talking about the disability itself. We're instead being asked to "feel the pain" and experience fear.

At last night's meeting it was suggested that kids who might have to relocate from one local school to another within a small town would suffer substantial depression and in turn could conceivably become seriously impaired.

Disability should never be used in this way. Narrative prosthesis demeans the accomplishments of those who have surmounted obstacles and it obscures the more complex human issues under discussion.

Can kids who are asked to relocate from one school to another become anxious or depressed? Yes.

Can children who do not relocate from one school to another become situationally depressed? Yes.

Can we prevent anxiety for our kids. Sometimes.

Is the idea of relocating kids to meet the goals of parity within a school district the best idea for kids. Probably not.

Would such a policy if adopted cause a flood of mental illness. Decidedly not.

Human beings are tremendously resilient. As the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung famously remarked: "consciosness itself is painful."

S.K.