„Ezt az intézményt szükségesség hozta létre” - Erkölcsi fogyatékosság mint gyógypedagógiai probléma a II. világháborút követő évtizedben
“This Institution was Established out of Necessity”: Moral Disability as a Special-Education Concern after the Second World War

Summary/Abstract: Focusing on the period between the interwar years and the 1956 revolution, the first part of the study uses discourse analysis to examine formulations made by representatives of the psy-sciences (psychiatry, psychology and special education) concerning the relationship between criminal behaviour and disability. The second part explores the transformation of the special-education institutional system after 1945 through the analysis of ministry archives, faculty meeting records, and documents from the State School for Special Education in Pécs and the Neurological and Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Pécs. Bringing these two analytical perspectives together provides insight into how the concept of “moral disability” was constructed in professional discourse and institutional practice. The findings indicate that experts often traced the causes of juvenile delinquency to social factors, but their interpretations typically remained anchored in the family background. The sources suggest that the concept of “moral disability” functioned not only as a diagnostic label but also as a systemic selection mechanism, which deployed the framework of intellectual deficiency to manage transgressive behaviours, while the effects of individual trauma and social environment were relegated to the background.

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