Protecting the social body: use of the organism metaphor in fighting the "menace of the feebleminded".

Although persons with developmental disabilities living in the United States have been treated in a pejorative manner at various times throughout the nation's history, the eugenics era (1900-1930) stands out as a time when such individuals-then referred to as "feebleminded"--were subject to particularly extreme indignities. Numerous methods of dehumanizing such persons were employed during this era. Of special significance was the use of the organism metaphor, whereby the "unfit" members of society were compared to a parasite, cancer, virus, or plague infecting the social body. The use of rhetoric advancing the organism metaphor in eugenic writing is described in this paper as is the effect that such rhetoric had on the societal response to such persons.