Omsorg och Kontroll En handikapphistorisk studie 1750- 1930

Summary
It is however of course necessary to separate folklore from reality. Fairy
tales were symbolic stories which confronted a reality, the existence of
children born with birth defects and the reaction of their mothers and society
at large. There are in fact a few legal cases from the 17th century in
which parents actually attempt to reclaim their ”real” children from the
supernatural interlopers. One of them concerns a ten-year-old boy who
was left on a stack of manure and later died. The reaction of the elders was
sharp. Both the court and the parish clergy condemned the act and blamed
it on ignorance and prejudice.
I have interpreted the phenomenon of changelings as the expression of
the constant anxiety caused by the dangers lying in wait for small children.
It gave mothers an outlet in which to emotionally and existentially process
the loss of their ”real” child. It was a general, cultural set of instructions
about how to perceive and care for infants who deviated from the norm
and instilled hope that the ”real” child would one day return.
That the mother herself through some ill-advised behavior could have
caused injury to her offspring during pregnancy, a perception in fact shared
by a large portion of the medical community, is also explored in this chapter.
Though I have chosen the dichotomy popular/scientific, this must not
overshadow the complexity of people´s thoughts. Many individuals could
easily embrace both folkloric explanations and scientific knowledge, just
as they could pray to the God of the Church and believe in the existence
of supernatural beings living in nearby woods.
Scientific knowledge is spread through printed texts and contact between
scholars. The articles examined in the next chapter contain, in contrast
with the oral, popular tales, both preconceptions and scientific fact,
while at the same time being expressions of the hierarchy of power in society.
Scientific statements had a general purpose; they were intended to
guide society and its members in a specific direction.
The establishment of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science and National
Bureau of Statistics in 1739 and 1749, respectively, was central to the
dissemination of knowledge and enlightment. These organizations were
agents in the era´s search for more information and new knowledge to the
benefit of the nation. In the course of this search, people with functional
disorders were also ”discovered” and studied.
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