“弱智者的威胁”:戈达德与19、20世纪之交美国对智力缺陷者的形象建构及其影响  

“The Menace of the Feeble Minded”:Henry Goddard and the Image-building of the Mentally Retarded in America at the Turn of the 20th Century and Its Influence

作　　者：王光伟 Wang Guangwei

机构地区：[1]南开大学世界近现代史研究中心,天津300071

出　　处：《四川大学学报（哲学社会科学版）》2022年第6期177-186,共10页Journal of Sichuan University：Philosophy and Social Science Edition

基　　金：中国博士后科学基金项目“优生学与20世纪初美国对边缘群体的社会控制”(2021M701783);南开大学文科发展基金项目“传染病与19世纪美国公共卫生发展研究”(ZB22BZ0309);南开大学文科发展基金项目“传染病与近代以来欧美社会变迁研究”(ZB21BZ0208)。

摘　　要：“弱智者的威胁”是20世纪初美国学者亨利•戈达德系统阐述的对智力缺陷者的看法,旨在论证对智力缺陷者展开社会控制的必要性。1908年,戈达德率先把比奈-西蒙智力量表引入美国,用以分类和识别智力缺陷者,并作为塑造后者负面形象的重要工具。戈达德借助家族谱系研究,把绝大多数智力缺陷塑造成“遗传性弱智”。在此基础之上,他又借助智力测试,强调智力缺陷是造成贫困、卖淫、犯罪等社会问题的重要原因,且美国儿童智力缺陷者数量众多,“弱智者的威胁”形象由此确立。“弱智者的威胁”命题虽不是肇始于戈达德,但他“科学”地论证了它的真实性,进而推动美国在更大范围内实施婚姻限制、隔离和绝育等措施,以消除智力缺陷。实际上,这些措施反映的是一种工具理性,忽视了智力缺陷者的基本权利,同时也缺乏严谨的科学基础,最终未能实现预期目的。“The Menace of the Feeble Minded”was a systematic view of the mentally retarded articulated by the American scholar Henry Goddard in the early 20th century,aiming to demonstrate the necessity of social control over the mentally retarded.In 1908,Goddard took the lead in introducing the Binet-Simon Scale into the United States,which was used to classify and identify the mentally retarded,and became an important tool to shape the negative image of the latter.Goddard used family studies to portray the majority of the mentally retarded as hereditary defectives.On this basis,Goddard also used intelligence tests to demonstrate that Mental retardation was an important cause of social problems such as poverty,prostitution and crime,and there were a large number of mentally retarded children in the United States,thus establishing the image of“The Menace of the Feeble Minded”.Although Goddard was not the origin of the proposition of“The Menace of the Feeble Minded”,he“scientifically”argued for its truth,which led to a wider implementation of marriage restrictions,segregation,and sterilization to eliminate mental retardation in the United States.In fact,these practices reflected an instrumental rationality that ignored the fundamental rights of the mentally retarded and lacked a rigorous scientific basis,and they ultimately failed to achieve their intended goals.

关 键 词：美国 戈达德 智力缺陷者 社会控制 

分 类 号：K712.5[历史地理—历史学]