Relative definition of handicap: implications for research

According to a relative definition handicap arises in the relation between an individual (with a weakness, an impairment or a disability) and his/her environment. To identify handicap it is therefore necessary to use environmental criteria as well as individual ones. Several attempts have been made to take a relative definition as a basis for classification and research. These attempts, however, often end up using a traditional clinical perspective by reducing the highly complex environmental circumstances to the ability of the individual to handle those circumstances. This is the case with the terminology and classification schemes proposed by WHO (International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps: ICIDH). This is also what seems to have happened with the relative notion of mental retardation, presented 15 years ago in terms of "a social system perspective". One of the reasons might be the methodological problems involved in handling the complexity of social environmental factors. To transcend the clinical perspective and take the full consequences of the relative definition social and behavioral research need to focus on the social meaning of handicap as it manifests itself in daily life. This calls for an anthropological approach in studying the everyday lives of mentally retarded persons as well as studies of the role of the professional in labelling those persons.