Some Problems in Rehabilitation as Seen by a Lewinian

Models of Disability: Implications for the Counseling Profession

“…These two models are considered to be interactive models because the disability (of the individual) interacts with functions and environment (Dembo, 1982;Tanenbaum, 1986;Thomason, Burton, & Hyatt, 1998). Therefore, the definition of disability, the causal attribution, and the solution attribution are not found wholly within the individual (or his or her disability).…”

“…The conceptualization of disability as an attribute located solely within an individual is changing to a paradigm in which disability is thought to be an interaction among the individual, the disability, and the environment (both social and physical; Dembo, 1982;Higgins, 1992). Typically, the disability is not the single defining characteristic of the individual; rather the disability is one of several important parts of the individual's self-identity.…”

Cultivating Our Roots and Extending Our Branches

“…Its proponents could have (a) better traced and recognized the lineage of publications seminal to those important ideas that they sought to promote and (b) then built on that theoretical legacy by identifying and inspiring needed explorations into the understanding and use of those concepts. The ideas presented in the so-called "new paradigm" had been elaborated over decades (e.g., Dembo, 1982;Dembo & Hanfmann, 1935;Wright, 1960Wright, , 1991. What's to account for the discrepancy or lag between the academic acceptance of these sound theoretical concepts and their inadequate adoption and incorporation, to date, by rehabilitation and related professions?…”

“…Its respected journal published one of our field's first major monographs (Meyerson, 1948) and a contemporary counterpart as a 40th anniversary commemorative issue (Asch & Fine, 1988). The organization's premiere honor, the Kurt Lewin Memorial Award, was given to Tamara Dembo in 1982 andto Beatrice Wright in 2009. Another important resource for rehabilitation educators, practitioners, and advocates is the Society for Disability Studies (SDS).…”

The Social Psychology of Physical Disability: 1948 and 1988

“…Among 850 responses to a membership survey in 1985 (SPSSI, 1987), in which topics and issues for SPSSI's agenda were requested, 5 members (a little more than half of 1% of those responding) mentioned the "physically impaired" as a social issue. However, until now, not a single citation to a JSI-1948 article has appeared in JSI in the past 40 years, and aside from a few marginally related articles on life-threatening illness, JSZ has published just one paper on disability (Dembo, 1982) in these four decades.…”