What's in a name? The implications of diagnosis for people with learning difficulties and their family carers

Diagnosis plays a significant role in the shaping of individual identities and the quality of life for people with learning difficulties and their fam ily carers. Diagnostic labels are constitutive of peoples' lives, in that t hey bring forth pathology, create problem-saturated stories and construct c areers as patients and cases. Disabled identities of people with learning d ifficulties remain largely 'embodied' and within the definitional control o f professionals. Whilst the acquisition of a learning difficulty label cart open doors to resources, it can also lead to disrespectful and dehumanisin g treatment, and the severe restriction of opportunities. This paper argues that a social constructionist perspective can offer a way of thinking abou t diagnosis that challenges the so called facts' and 'truths' that underpin and support it. Working in partnership with people with learning difficult ies in relation to diagnosis requires professionals to relinquish power by resisting the 'temptations of certainty' associated with diagnostic practic es.