To be or not to be: Stuttering and the human costs of being "un-disabled"

The centrality of communicating in human life means that communication difficulties are experienced at a deeply personal level and have significant implications for identity. Intervention methods may interact positively or negatively with these experiences.

This paper explores this intersection in the case of stuttering, suggesting that some intervention styles may dovetail unhelpfully with the "mainstream" prizing of normalcy. In particular, most "western" societies offer a performance-oriented milieu which prizes efficiency, immediacy and competitiveness, diverting energy from the equally important work of understanding and integrating difference.

Given that a person who stutters speaks fluently and with a stutter, stuttering can lean toward a complex view of disability identity-being both able and disabled. This split repertoire invites psychologically costly efforts at being "un-disabled".

Interventions which amplify this tendency can contribute to an alienation from self amid strivings for normalcy.