Abstract

COBO PAZ, Natalia. Representations about intelligence. The abnormal intellectuals in Colombia during the first half of the twentieth century. Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2022, vol.45, n.1, pp.439-460.  Epub Dec 28, 2023. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v45n1.87259.

In our society, the evaluative frameworks according to how the human has been defined, have taken intelligence as a fundamental criterion. The validity of this idea makes problematizing it a relevant issue. The question that motivates this article has to do with representations about those who do not meet the standards of normative intelligence. Consequently, it focuses on the representations that were built from different expert knowledge as medicine, psychiatry, pedagogy, and jurisprudence, on the so called abnormal intellectual in Colombia during the first half of the 20th century.

In the first section the problem of intelligence measurement is addressed as well as the hierarchical scale derived from it; in the second, the ways in which those diagnosed as abnormal intellectuals were described emphasizing deteriorated humanity, immorality, excessive violence, degenerate sexuality, and unproductiveness; and in the third, some standardization treatments to which they were subjected are introduced. For this, a desk-based research work was carried out where medical theses, books, treatises and published conferences, articles in specialised journals, and the legislation in force at the time were tracked.

Keywords : abnormality; classification; diagnosis; expert knowledge; intelligence; representation.

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