Download or read book Inventing the Feeble Mind written by James W. Trent Jr. and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1994-03-16 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James W. Trent uses public documents, private letters, investigative reports, and rare photographs to explore our changing perceptions of mental retardation over the past 150 years. He contends that the economic vulnerability of mentally retarded people (and their families), more than the claims made for their intellectual or social limitations, has determined their institutional treatment.