The World Health Organization states that "disability results from the interaction between individuals with a health condition such as cerebral palsy, down syndrome and depression as well as personal and environmental factors including negative attitudes, inaccessible transportation and public buildings, and limited social support."
In Nobody's Normal, anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker explores the history of mental illness stigma, tracing its roots from the 18th century to today. He argues that stigma is a cultural process we learn from our communities but have the power to change. Through personal stories and global research, Grinker offers hope that society is moving toward greater acceptance of mental illness as part of human diversity.
Contemporary human rights discourses problematically co-opt disabled bodies as 'evidence' of harms done under capitalism, war, and other forms of conflict, while humanitarian non-governmental organizations often use disabled bodies to generate resources for their humanitarian projects. It contends that disability studies challenge these exclusionary paradigms, which prioritize humanitarianism over disability rights.
Inaugurates a new field of disability studies by framing disability as a minority discourse rather than a medical one, revising oppressive narratives and revealing liberatory ones. The book examines disabled figures in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Rebecca Harding Davis's Life in the Iron Mills, in African-American novels by Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde, and in the popular cultural ritual of the freak show.
