Disabling violence: intellectual disability and the limits of ethical engagement

Abstract

Carers for people with intellectual disabilities in the UK are obliged to drive bad intimacy out of the caring relationship and enable these individuals to find positive forms of ethical reciprocity. In an organisation called L’Arche UK, these two aims are combined when carers pursue friendships with those they support that go beyond the bonds contractual care. What happens to this ethical project when those with intellectual disabilities are violent to their care-givers? Trying to pursue ethical engagement in this context has the unexpected aim of creating distrustful and tense relationships. This raises questions not only about what role intentionality and responsibility play in thwarting this project, but also what ‘success’ would look like – that is, what ethical engagement actually involves.