The Essential Social Science of Behavioral Disorders

Beginning of article

ABSTRACT. All the social sciences struggle to pinpoint and grasp those aspects of human behavior that shape and are shaped by some historical-social reality. This article discusses how and why scientific work directed toward behavioral disorders is almost a perfect metaphor for the dilemma of the social sciences as a whole. Specifically the development of individuals occurs in dynamic transaction with environments that are themselves conditioned by complex social histories. I point out that study of children with behavioral disorders is different from study of special education as a social system that defines and responds to children with behavioral disorders. I argue that, although the …