The term ''imbecile'' was once used by

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

s to denote a category of people with moderate to severe

intellectual disability Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability in the United Kingdom and formerly mental retardation,Rosa's Law, Pub. L. 111-256124 Stat. 2643(2010). is a generalized neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by signifi ...

, as well as a type of criminal.Fernald, Walter E. (1912). ''The imbecile with criminal instincts.'' Fourth edition. Boston: Ellis. .Duncan, P. Martin; Millard, William (1866). ''A manual for the classification, training, and education of the feeble-minded, imbecile, and idiotic.'' Longmans, Green, and Co. The word arises from the Latin word ''imbecillus'', meaning weak, or weak-minded. It originally referred to people of the second order in a former and discarded classification of intellectual disability, with a

mental age Mental age is a concept related to intelligence. It looks at how a specific individual, at a specific age, performs intellectually, compared to average intellectual performance for that individual's actual chronological age (i.e. time elapsed sin ...

of three to seven years and an IQ of 25–50, above "

idiot An idiot, in modern use, is a stupid or foolish person. 'Idiot' was formerly a technical term in legal and psychiatric contexts for some kinds of profound intellectual disability where the mental age is two years or less, and the person cannot ...

" (IQ below 25) and below " moron" (IQ of 51–70).Sternberg, Robert J. (2000). ''Handbook of Intelligence.''

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

. . In the obsolete medical classification (

ICD-9 The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is a globally used diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management and clinical purposes. The ICD is maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is the directing and coordinating ...

, 1977), these people were said to have "moderate

mental retardation Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability in the United Kingdom and formerly mental retardation,Rosa's Law, Pub. L. 111-256124 Stat. 2643(2010). is a generalized neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by signific ...

" or "moderate mental subnormality" with IQ of 35–49, as they are usually capable of some degree of communication, guarding themselves against danger and performing simple mechanical tasks under supervision. The meaning was further refined into mental and moral imbecility.Kerlin, Isaac N. (1889). "Moral imbecility". ''Proceedings of the Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiotic and Feeble-minded Persons'', 15–18.Fernald, Walter E. (1 April 1909)
"The imbecile with criminal instincts"
''

American Journal of Psychiatry ''The American Journal of Psychiatry'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of psychiatry, and is the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association. The first volume was issued in 1844, at which time it was k ...

''. 65(4):731–749. The concepts of "moral insanity", "

moral idiocy Moral idiocy is an inability to distinguish between right and wrong, or to understand how moral values apply to ones own life and the lives of others. It is sometime used to describe amoral institutional behavior, with the suggestion that moral ...

"," and "moral imbecility" led to the emerging field of

eugenic Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...

criminology Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...

, which held that crime can be reduced by preventing "

feeble-minded The term feeble-minded was used from the late 19th century in Europe, the United States and Australasia for disorders later referred to as illnesses or deficiencies of the mind. At the time, ''mental deficiency'' encompassed all degrees of educa ...

" people from reproducing.Rafter, Nicole Hahn (1998). ''Creating Born Criminals.'' Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press. . Tredgold, A. F. (1921). "Moral Imbecility". '' Proc R Soc Med'', 1921; 14(Sect Psych): 13–22. "Imbecile" as a concrete classification was popularized by psychologist Henry H. Goddard Goddard, Henry Herbert (1915).
The Criminal Imbecile; an Analysis of Three Remarkable Murder Cases
'. New York: The Macmillan Company. and was used in 1927 by

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

Justice

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist and legal scholar who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932.Holmes was Acting Chief Justice of the Un ...

in his ruling in the forced-sterilization case ''

Buck v. Bell ''Buck v. Bell'', 274 U.S. 200 (1927), is a decision of the United States Supreme Court, written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., in which the Court ruled that a state statute permitting compulsory sterilization of the unfit, including th ...

'', 274 U.S. 200 (1927).Lombardo, Paul A. (2008). ''Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck V. Bell.'' JHU Press, The concept is closely associated with

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psych ...

, and

eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...

. However, the term ''imbecile'' quickly passed into vernacular usage as a derogatory term. It fell out of professional use in the 20th century in favor of ''mental retardation''.Kaplan, Robert M.; Saccuzzo, Dennis P. (2008). ''Psychological Testing: Principles, Applications, and Issues.'' Cengage Learning, Phrases such as "mental retardation", "mentally retarded", and " retarded" are also subject to the

euphemism treadmill A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes ...

: initially used in a medical manner, they gradually took on derogatory

connotation A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that any given word or phrase carries, in addition to its explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation. A connotation is frequently described as either positive o ...

. This had occurred with the earlier synonyms (for example, ''moron'', ''imbecile'', ''cretin'', and ''idiot'', formerly used as scientific terms in the early 20th century). Professionals searched for connotatively neutral replacements. In the United States, "

Rosa's Law Rosa's Law is a United States law which replaced several instances of "mental retardation" in law with "intellectual disability". The bill was introduced as S.2781 in the United States Senate on November 17, 2009, by Barbara Mikulski ( D- MD). It p ...

" changed references in many federal statutes to "mental retardation" to refer instead to "intellectual disability".Sweet, Lynn (October 5, 2010).
Obama signs 'Rosa's Law;' 'mental retardation' out, 'intellectual disability' in
". ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

''.

References

{{Reflist Obsolete terms for mental disorders Pejorative terms for people with disabilities Intellectual disability Obsolete medical terms Slurs related to low intelligence