Intellectual Disability in the Twentieth Century Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on editors and contributors
- Introduction
- one Paradoxical lives: intellectual disability policy and practice in twentieth-century Australia
- two Tracing the historical and ideological roots of services for people with intellectual disabilities in Austria
- three Time of paradoxes: what the twentieth century was like for people with intellectual disabilities living in Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic
- four Intellectual disability in twentieth-century Ghana
- five A Greek Neverland: the history of the Leros asylums’ inmates with intellectual disability (1958–95)
- six Intellectual disability in Hong Kong: then and now
- seven People with intellectual disabilities in the European semi-periphery: the case of Hungary
- eight People with intellectual disabilities in Iceland in the twentieth century: sterilisation, social role valorisation and ‘normal life’
- nine Institutionalisation in twentieth-century New Zealand
- ten ‘My life in the institution’ and ‘My life in the community’: policies and practice in Taiwan
- eleven Intellectual disability policy and practice in twentieth-century United Kingdom
- twelve From social menace to unfulfilled promise: the evolution of policy and practice towards people with intellectual disabilities in the United States
- Index
seven - People with intellectual disabilities in the European semi-periphery: the case of Hungary
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 April 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on editors and contributors
- Introduction
- one Paradoxical lives: intellectual disability policy and practice in twentieth-century Australia
- two Tracing the historical and ideological roots of services for people with intellectual disabilities in Austria
- three Time of paradoxes: what the twentieth century was like for people with intellectual disabilities living in Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic
- four Intellectual disability in twentieth-century Ghana
- five A Greek Neverland: the history of the Leros asylums’ inmates with intellectual disability (1958–95)
- six Intellectual disability in Hong Kong: then and now
- seven People with intellectual disabilities in the European semi-periphery: the case of Hungary
- eight People with intellectual disabilities in Iceland in the twentieth century: sterilisation, social role valorisation and ‘normal life’
- nine Institutionalisation in twentieth-century New Zealand
- ten ‘My life in the institution’ and ‘My life in the community’: policies and practice in Taiwan
- eleven Intellectual disability policy and practice in twentieth-century United Kingdom
- twelve From social menace to unfulfilled promise: the evolution of policy and practice towards people with intellectual disabilities in the United States
- Index
Summary
Introduction
This chapter gives an overview of the changing situation of people with intellectual disabilities throughout the twentieth century in Hungary. The analysis follows four broad historical periods: before the end of the Second World War; state socialism between 1945 and 1989; the period of post-socialist transformation from 1990; and the current period following Hungary's European Union membership in 2004. Although these periods were far from homogenous from a socio-political perspective, nevertheless taking a broad chronological approach helps to highlight and trace change and continuity in the situation of people with intellectual disabilities across the decades.
The chapter primarily draws on historical sources as well as the analysis of published data and research, and also includes three vignettes constructed to illustrate some ‘typical themes’ in the life trajectories of individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families in contemporary Hungary, highlighting the various forms of exclusion they face. The vignettes are based on themes emerging from real-life stories and quantitative quality-of-life research; however, they do not relate to any specific individuals. Any similarities to real-life stories are coincidental.
Before 1945
In Hungary until the Second World War the family and the local community (municipality) were the main providers of care to people with intellectual disabilities. The first institution and residential school for children with intellectual disabilities opened in the capital, Budapest, in 1875. This was followed by the establishment of several special (remedial) classes and ‘orthopedagogic institutions’ across the country.
The Population Census of 1881 identified 18,672 individuals with intellectual disabilities, a rate of 12 per 10,000 population (Országos Magyar Királyi Statisztikai Hivatal [National Royal Statistical Office], 1882, 776). According to Jakab Frim, the founder of the first institution, the treatment of people with intellectual disabilities in Hungary at the time was comparable to countries ‘we do not like to be compared with’ and was lagging far behind ‘modern Western countries’ (1884, 94). He described the situation of people with intellectual disabilities in bleak terms: ‘[o]ften families keep them hidden in the house, sometimes they are abandoned, or placed with families or in charitable hospitals at the lowest possible cost’ (Frim, 1884, 81).
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- Intellectual Disability in the Twentieth CenturyTransnational Perspectives on People, Policy, and Practice, pp. 113 - 128Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2019