Imbecile was a controversial term used to classify a type of
mental retardationMental retardation is a generalized disorder, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors with onset before the age of 18...
, as well as a type of criminal. The term is closely associated with
psychologyPsychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...
,
psychiatryPsychiatry is a medical specialty officially devoted to the treatment and study of mental disorders. The term was first coined by the German physician Johann Christian Reil in 1808....
,
criminologyCriminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in the behavioral sciences, drawing especially upon the research of sociologists and psychologists, as well as on...
, and
eugenicsEugenics is the study and practice of selective breeding applied to humans, with the aim of improving the species. Widely popular in the early decades of the 20th century, after having become associated with the Holocaust, it has largely fallen into disrepute.- Overview :As a social movement...
.
It derives from the Latin word
imbecillus, meaning weak, or weak-minded. "Imbecile" was once applied to people with an IQ of 26-50, between "
moronMoron is a controversial term once used in psychology to denote a category of mental retardation. The term was closely tied with the American eugenics movement. Once the term became popularized, it fell out of use by the psychological community....
" (IQ of 51-70) and "idiot" (IQ of 0-25).
The term was further refined into mental and moral imbecility.
Imbecile was a controversial term used to classify a type of
mental retardationMental retardation is a generalized disorder, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors with onset before the age of 18...
, as well as a type of criminal. The term is closely associated with
psychologyPsychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...
,
psychiatryPsychiatry is a medical specialty officially devoted to the treatment and study of mental disorders. The term was first coined by the German physician Johann Christian Reil in 1808....
,
criminologyCriminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in the behavioral sciences, drawing especially upon the research of sociologists and psychologists, as well as on...
, and
eugenicsEugenics is the study and practice of selective breeding applied to humans, with the aim of improving the species. Widely popular in the early decades of the 20th century, after having become associated with the Holocaust, it has largely fallen into disrepute.- Overview :As a social movement...
.
It derives from the Latin word
imbecillus, meaning weak, or weak-minded. "Imbecile" was once applied to people with an IQ of 26-50, between "
moronMoron is a controversial term once used in psychology to denote a category of mental retardation. The term was closely tied with the American eugenics movement. Once the term became popularized, it fell out of use by the psychological community....
" (IQ of 51-70) and "idiot" (IQ of 0-25).
The term was further refined into mental and moral imbecility. The concepts of "moral insanity," "moral idiocy," and "moral imbecility," led to the emerging field of eugenic criminology, which held that crime can be reduced by preventing "
feeble-mindedThe term feeble-minded is documented in use as early the 19th century through to the early 20th century as a loose description of a variety of mental deficiencies, including what would now be considered mental retardation in its various types and grades, and learning disabilities such as dyslexia.A...
" people from reproducing.
"Imbecile" as a concrete classification was popularized by
psychologistA psychologist is someone who studies the human mind and behavior. Research psychologists study human perception, cognition, attention, emotion, motivation, personality, behavior and interpersonal relationships...
Henry H. GoddardHenry Herbert Goddard was a prominent American psychologist and eugenicist in the early 20th century. He is known especially for his 1912 work The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness, which he himself came to regard as deeply flawed, and for being the first to translate...
and was used in 1927 by
United States Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal judiciary. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices, who are nominated by the President and confirmed with the "advice and consent" of the Senate...
Justice
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932...
in his landmark ruling in the forced-sterilization case
Buck v. BellBuck v. Bell, , was the United States Supreme Court ruling that upheld a statute instituting compulsory sterilization of the unfit, including the mentally retarded, "for the protection and health of the state." It was largely seen as an endorsement of negative eugenics—the attempt to improve...
. The term
imbecile quickly passed into vernacular usage as a derogatory term, and it fell out of professional use in the 20th century.