Retard has mixed connotations, different sub-cultures use it differently, some retain the medical connotations, some do not.

No it doesn’t. Any more than schizoid does. It means something very specific and because it means what it means, it makes an effective insult. You can pretend that the commonality of it’s use as an insult changes it’s meaning in a clinical context all you want – that doesn’t make you correct. People also use schizoid as an insult (though not so often, as it is a bit dated) too, does that mean we need to come up with a different term for schizophrenia?

When people use the term retard as an insult, they are essentially claiming that the person being insulted fits one of the clinical criteria for being retarded. They would not use that term, were it not for the clinical definition. The term does not, in point of fact, actually matter – it is what that term defines that is being used as an insult. All that coming up with a whole new term would do, in a cultural sense, is provide a whole new insult for people who do or say stupid things.

Meanwhile, in clinical psychology, it would mean trying to actually convince psychologists across the board, to adopt a new term in exchange for the perfectly useful term we already have. The reasons that cretinism, and moronic fell out of favor, wasn’t because they became insults, it is because they were found not to be useful – they were used as blanket terms that covered far too many possible combinations of characteristics. The same is true of idiotic.

Trying to re-term clinical definitions is problematic. It is problematic when you are doing so, because the definition changes – it is fucking ridiculous to try, when the definition is not actually changing. For a good example of this, there are psychologists who absolutely will not use the term “addiction” because of it’s negative connotations. Seriously. If you don’t understand the problem with this, click my name and click on my addiction tab – one of my early posted papers will explain. In short, addiction and substance use disorders are already a convoluted mess. Trying to then turn around and completely change the language altogether just creates room for even more confusion.

Especially when you have a patient who, for whatever reason, needs to see a different therapist – or is also going to be seeing a psychiatrist for medications. We try to keep the clinical language common for a reason. That is a very important one. Changing terms is problematic, because it fucks up that common language and bad things can happen when you fuck up common clinical language.

Sorry. Certainly not intending to be.
Not sure how I am, since I’m suggesting that different uses are permissable and that no-one, certainly not me, is better or more righteous in their use.

“Your argument is based on what people “should” mean by use of the word, not what it’s actually used for”

I’m saying that different people use the word differently, and that the ‘traditional’ use has no inherent importance. Not what people “should” mean, but what they do mean.

DuWayne – Sorry, you appear to be taking my prediction about the future fate of the word as a criticism of you or your field. Either the word loses it’s medical significance or it doesn’t. If it does, (as I suspect it will), you are behind the curve. If it does not, you are not.

Using ‘retard’ as an insult is different from using ‘moron’ or ‘schizo’ for the same reason, but in opposite directions. Moron has lost it’s medical connotations, and is insulting to no group. Retard has mixed connotations, different sub-cultures use it differently, some retain the medical connotations, some do not. Schizo has not got mixed connotations, it refers exclusively to a group of people and is offensive. This last position is shared by the word faggot.

To your question about a replacement for retard – replacing the word with the full list of the characteristics would be unnecesarily unwieldy and does not take into account the way people use language, it would be quickly replaced itself with a word or short phrase that signifies those characteristics. We should come up with another term. Delayed is a synonym of retarded in that context and variations on that are probably our best bet.

If that becomes an insult, we can remain offended for as long as we believe they are referring to the group of disorders that word described rather than just using it as an insult such as moron.

Sorry. Certainly not intending to be.
Not sure how I am, since I’m suggesting that different uses are permissable and that no-one, certainly not me, is better or more righteous in their use.

“Your argument is based on what people “should” mean by use of the word, not what it’s actually used for”

I’m saying that different people use the word differently, and that the ‘traditional’ use has no inherent importance. Not what people “should” mean, but what they do mean.

DuWayne – Sorry, you appear to be taking my prediction about the future fate of the word as a criticism of you or your field. Either the word loses it’s medical significance or it doesn’t. If it does, (as I suspect it will), you are behind the curve. If it does not, you are not.

Using ‘retard’ as an insult is different from using ‘moron’ or ‘schizo’ for the same reason, but in opposite directions. Moron has lost it’s medical connotations, and is insulting to no group. Retard has mixed connotations, different sub-cultures use it differently, some retain the medical connotations, some do not. Schizo has not got mixed connotations, it refers exclusively to a group of people and is offensive. This last position is shared by the word faggot.

To your question about a replacement for retard – replacing the word with the full list of the characteristics would be unnecesarily unwieldy and does not take into account the way people use language, it would be quickly replaced itself with a word or short phrase that signifies those characteristics. We should come up with another term. Delayed is a synonym of retarded in that context and variations on that are probably our best bet.

If that becomes an insult, we can remain offended for as long as we believe they are referring to the group of disorders that word described rather than just using it as an insult such as moron.

You’re missing the point here. It really doesn’t matter if 99% of the time someone says retard, they are using it as an insult. Indeed it wouldn’t surprise me if that is the case. That doesn’t put me, or my field of study behind the curve. It just means that there is a significant portion of our society that feels entirely comfortable taking a technical term used to described a segment of the population who, among other things, have substandard cognitive functionality and use it as an insult. It is absolutely no different then using schizo or schizoid as an insult. It is no different than accusing someone of being a down syndrome motherfucker. It is no different than the rather dated insult of calling someone a Pollack. It is no different than using a phrase like nigger-rigging. It is no different using faggot, to infer someone is weak.

Some of those are more generally acceptable than others. Some used to be more acceptable. But all of them are inferring that having a characteristic that a given individual has no control over, is contemptible enough to consider it an insult.

But lets get back to retard. What would you suggest we do to describe someone who is retarded in a clinical context? Though I am not a therapist yet and will probably do more research and teaching, than clinical work, I will be doing at least some clinical work. When I do so, I will have paperwork to file on patients. Should I be dealing with someone who is retarded, what should I put instead of retarded? Should I write several pages to describe the characteristics that define retarded? Or should we come up with yet another term?

If we come up with yet another term, how long after it too becomes an insult can we still use it and still get upset that motherfuckers want to use it as an insult?

Still, I suspect you will find the term used more often as a synonym for idiot than a medically accurate term. The definition could go either way in the end, but is more likely to drift in the direction of most use, which renders you behind the curve, regardless of new psychology texts that are also behind the curve.

No worries, you don’t sound sanctimonious.