INVISIBLE TO THEMSELVES OR NEGOTIATING IDENTITY - THE INTERACTIONAL MANAGEMENT OF BEING INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED

There seems to be a professional (and perhaps societal) consensus that the identity, label of 'intellectual disabled' is an aversive, even ' toxic' one. Indeed, Todd & Shearn (1995, 1997) have advanced the sugge stion that parents' concerns over the toxicity of the label led them t o bring up their children iii ignorance of their disabilities, and thu s produce people who are 'invisible to themselves'. However, drawing o n work in discursive psychology, we argue that their data (and further data from our own work) suggests rather that the social identity, of 'being intellectually, disabled: and its management in talk, is consid erably, more fluid and dynamic than the static characteristic of self implied by, the construct of an all-embracing, 'toxic', identity. A pe rson with an intellectual disability, can, like airy other, avow or di savow such an identity, according to the demands of the situation in w hich they find themselves.