Resumen

PORTUONDO SAO, Miriam. Evolution of the social concept of intellectual disability. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2004, vol.30, n.4, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-3127.

The reasons for the social evolution of intellectual disability and its present status in Latin America and Cuba are provided through a literature review and the analysis of the history and the current situation. Intellectual disability is regarded as a complex social problem, viewed in various forms and according to the analyzed social-cultural period. However, there is no doubt that mental retardation is neither an exclusive nor a fundamental medical or scientific problem, but above all a social problem. A social problem in its origin, as Fierro and Edgerton and others have stated, since each society determines who the sub-normal and defective persons are, why their disability is claimed and how they should be treated. That is why, the general approach to this process leading to mental deficiency is relative in each society and varies within the same society as time passes by. Nowadays, after the last conceptualization issued by the American Society of Mental Retardation (1992), this vision is slightly developing in general, even though it depends, of course, on the political and social context of each country. Therefore, a great social responsibility lies in the hands of scientists as the growing role of science in the social life has placed responsibility in the forefront. Nevertheless, the dynamic of science-society interaction has forced us to present the problem in other terms; it is not longer possible to ignore science-politics intervention but to assume it consciously and to strive for science with strongly humanistic projections. In Cuba, despite our economic difficulties, disabled persons enjoy incomparable conditions since the triumph of the Revolution, and it has been shown that in a society like the Cuban society, dueto the priorities set by the government and the existing health care system, studies may be performed that take care and confidence as well as unprecedented benefits and support to the most needed

Palabras clave : MENTAL RETARDATION [history]; SOCIAL PROBLEMS; QUALITY OF LIFE; WORLD HEALTH CARE; LATIN AMERICA; CUBA.