TERRITORIAL ISOLATION AND PHYSICAL DEFORMITY - ISRAELI PARENTS REACTION TO DISABLED-CHILDREN

This paper presents and analyses three case studies portraying the att itudes and reactions of Israeli parents towards their deformed childre n. The research method employed was participant observation in homes, combined with in-depth interviews. It was found that parents tended to isolate their handicapped children from family territories in those c ontexts in which the child was defined as a 'non-person'. This pattern was not affected by the parents' socioeconomic status, or by their et hnic and religious background.