Wounds

Wolfensberger has proposed that people who are at risk of societal devaluation are necessarily at high risk of Wounding or Poor Treatment.

He uses the term Wounding as that is the personal experience of those who are poorly treated.

The explication shown below is based on Wolfensberger's latest formulation which separates the major wounds from 'Other Reactions'.

The historical development of the Wounds may be found at:

INSERT HYPERLINK

Note- previously there was reference to Rights, but this seems to have been excluded as Wolf has moved away from a rights perspective- look at old formulation of wounds. Item 7 used to refer to Autonomy and Rights.

‘Wounds’ or Bad Things which happen to devalued persons

Societal Recognition of Difference

Which may be societally defined as an 'Impairment'
and which may be based on

Physical Difference (Bodily Appearance),

Cognitive Difference (Psychological Condition), or

Behavioural Difference (Social Actions)

which may lead to further:
Functional Difference/Impairment

may together lead to:

1 Relegation to low (‘deviant’) status

2 Rejection, perhaps by family, neighbours, community, society, service workers

3 Cast into one or more Historical Deviancy Roles

4 Symbolical Stigmatising, ‘marking’, ‘deviancy-imaging’, ‘branding’

5 Being Multiply Jeopardised, scape-goated

6 Distantiation: usually via Segregation and also Congregation

7 Loss of Control, perhaps even autonomy and freedom.

8 Physical Discontinuity with the environment and objects

9 Social and Relationship Discontinuity, even abandonment

10 Denial of True Human Companionship

Absence or loss of natural/freely-given relationships, and substitution of artificial/’boughten’ ones

11 Deindividualisation

12 Involuntary Material Poverty, material/financial exploitation.

13 Impoverishment of Experience, especially that of the typical, valued world.

14 Exclusion From Value Systems

Exclusion from knowledge of, and participation in, higher order value systems

(e.g. religion) that give meaning and direction to life, and provide community.

15 Having One’s Life ‘Wasted’

16 Extreme Negative Treatment

Being the object of Brutalisation, ‘killing thoughts’, and deathmaking.

Hinge Wounds Underlined

Adapted from Wolfensberger

Other Reactions to Bad Treatment

The items below used to be included in The Wounds, but have now been clustered at the end as:

Other Reactions to Bad Treatment

Additional Mental/Behavioural Response Patterns That Are Evidence of Disturbed Interactions with the world, and that are engendered by certain wounds and wound clusters.

Feeling like being an alien in the world DETAILS

	A sense of worthlessness, dislike of self, despair DETAILS
	Insecurity DETAILS
	Failure sets and avoidance mentalities DETAILS
	Awareness of being a source of anguish to those who love one DETAILS
	Searching for the abandoner DETAILS
	Fantasy and inventions about relationships that do not exist, and may never have existed DETAILS
	Seeking/demanding physical contact, perhaps insatiably DETAILS
	Problematic testing of genuineness of personal and social relationships, particularly new ones DETAILS
	Turning the hurt into resentment, hatred towards privileged people, benefactors, society, God DETAILS
	Withdrawing from human contact, perhaps even from reality DETAILS
	Rage, perhaps violence DETAILS
	A sapping of energy- both physical and mental- resulting in a lowering of intelligent behaviour, and possibly even of intelligence DETAILS Imagery and Wounds There is a section of this web which contains examples of imagery that illustrate wounds:

Wound Imagery

Wounds

‘Wounds’ or Bad Things which happen to devalued persons

Other Reactions to Bad Treatment

Additional Mental/Behavioural Response Patterns That Are Evidence of Disturbed Interactions with the world, and that are engendered by certain wounds and wound clusters.

Imagery and Wounds