An approach to the posthuman condition of intellectual disability

Abstract

For a long time, intellectual disability was considered on the basis of parameters of normality and abnormality, a traditional binarism anchored to social attitudes trapped in the explanatory models of disability, and in the contextual factors that, according to social needs and values, determine what is adequate or inadequate, good or defective, socially healthy or sick.  Analyzing the evolution of this concept in order to achieve a broader understanding of the posthuman condition of intellectual disability and its possibilities of development raises some questions, among them: what does this evolution and recurrent changes in the definition and diagnosis of intellectual disability suggest? What makes this diagnostic category not remain fixed over time? Why do the changes presented over the years describe a more real and individual human being from its variability, multiplicity and capacity? In this text I present a critical documentary review, in which milestones were selected that have noticed changes and alterations of meaning to understand intellectual disability; in order to unveil, and understand, from the posthuman condition proposed by Rosi Braidotti, issues that contribute to the slippage of discursive confines and categorical differences, imposed by humanism and anthropocentrism.  It is concluded that further reflection on the experience of intellectual disability is required, highlighting the importance of subjectivity and human agency, accepting that there is no single way of being human.