The Castberggaard Syndrome. Tomas Kold Erlandsen
THE CASTBERGGAARD
SYNDROME
”Deaf children were put in straitjackets”
IMAGES AND TEXT BY
TOMAS KOLD ERLANDSEN
Translated by
Linnea Bjerding
Döviana Konsult & Tjänster publish works that enlighten different issues about the deaf, deaf culture and sign language as well as academic research. This is a translated work of Tomas Kold Erlandsen. The original text is in Swedish.
Copyright © 2013 Döviana Konsult & Tjänster
Copyright © 2013 Tomas Kold Erlandsen
All rights are reserved.
Images by Tomas Kold Erlandsen
Cover by Petra Örlegård
E-book Production: Elib AB, 2013
ISBN 9789197932684
This is an e-book.
PREFACE
Several people have asked me to write about Castberggaard syndrome and publish it, even though I had initially thought that it was just my own hypothesis. I do not have any academic or research background, but since I have my own experiences of being deaf, that can be seen as even heavier than an academic research. In addition several senior academics have expressed excitement about the concept, they have asked for the issue to be more widespread and they wanted to take part of my material for their own future work. I have also held several lectures around the country and abroad.
Therefore, allow me to publish my thoughts so everyone can read about them and take position.
When reading the book, it is important that you are aware of my point of view: that being deaf is part of a cultural and linguistic minority, just like for instance, the black population in Sweden. Also, that deaf people are not handicapped by lack of hearing.
If one wants to read about deaf people as handicapped, one should read the medical manuals on the deaf, written by people with minimal knowledge about being deaf.
I must emphasize that I do not intend to make villains of hearing people (especially not parents), as most of them are acting in good faith because they have been guided to that which induces the Castberggaard syndrome. Had they been instructed otherwise, the situation would have been very different. That being said, the intention of this book is not to make villains of hearing people, even though it may seem that way.
To understand what the Castberggaard syndrome is, you first have to understand what audism is, and also realize it exists to a great extent. The Castberggaard syndrome is a consequence of audism, and therefore it is necessary for you as a reader to understand some things about it before moving on to the subject of the Castberggaard syndrome. Therefore, you should not be surprised when I begin with a brief description of what audism is and then refer you to two other books that describe the subject more thoroughly. I will then describe the background of my views on the concept of the Castberggaard syndrome and from there move on to describe what the syndrome is. I have developed the term ”the Castberggaard syndrome” over a period of several years, basing it on my own experiences, the experiences of others, interviews and on feedback from my lectures on the topic.
Towards the end of the book, I will be writing about how to prevent the Castberggaard syndrome and describe how to influence deaf people in a positive way. If you want to know even more about this subject, I recommend the book Deafhood/Audism (2011) by Patrik Nordell and the article “Reframing: From Hearing Loss to Deaf Gain” from Deaf Studies Digital Journal, issue one (2009).
Enjoy reading
Tomas Kold Erlandsen
SWINGING CHAIR
We often imagine that the elderly person at a nursing home sits or swings on a swinging chair is a vegetable or a person with dementia. This picture of the hand that is bound to the swinging chair shows that the deaf have been indoctrinated to abandon their identity in order to follow others’ desires.
AUDISM
Audism means discrimination of deaf people because of lack of hearing. The deaf American scholar Tom Humphries created the word in the year of 1975. He wrote an article with a new word, audism, and he established the definition of the word audism that derives from the Latin word ”audire”, which has the meaning of ”to hear”. It can be compared with racism, which is to treat humans differently based on their race (skin color), when white people oppress/overlook black people for the reason that they do not share the same skin color. Audism refers to the discrimination and disrespect of people who does not have a hearing person’s hearing. In Sweden in the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s, the word was established very quickly in connection to the deaf awareness movement (with the leadership of the deaf-movement activist Lars-Åke Wikström). Audism as a concept is very important to the deaf community, just as racism is to the black community.
According to Dirksen Baumann from Gallaudet University, there are three levels of audism:
1. Individual level
When discrimination occurs among ordinary people.
It could be when a person is preventing a deaf person’s right to take part of a conversation. To not let deaf people take part of signed language through an interpreter. There can also be situations where people do things that lead deaf people to be marginalized and made into ”the weak”. It also refers to the harassment of deaf people and to bully people for not being able to hear. It also includes slandering persons for their deafness.
2. Institutional level
This is when the system oppresses deaf people. It can be by preventing deaf people to get equal access to information in public spaces like buses, trains, stations, media and public assemblies. It can also be when society choose to deteriorate deaf people’s needs of equality (social economy), for example by forcing deaf children to leave deaf schools and integrate them in public schools for the hearing.
3. Ideological/metaphysical level
For many years, people has been taught that hearing ability is a powerful factor. ”The better you hear, the better you are”. This means that from birth, people are influenced to get the apprehension that deaf people are weak people, since deaf people do not hear. And that deafness should be cured.
The concept of Audism should be a sort of bucket and body of knowledge, which gather experiences from oppressed deaf people the same way as for example racism and sexism. When we for example mention ”racism”, it starts many thoughts we recognize from the history books; the slave trade, Ku Klux Klan and ethnic cleansing etc. Also when we mention the word ”sexism”, it makes us think of the oppression of women throughout the history, especially the pay differential between women and men, the perceptions of women and the illegal trafficking of women. We know that racism and sexism are seen as something awful. In the same way, you have to understand that when you encounter the word audism, it is about the oppression of deaf people – oppression because of one’s deafness and not as humans.
A person who commits audism is called an audist. The word ”audist” is a noun that describes the person.
This was a brief summary of what audism is. To understand it completely, I recommend you to read Deafhood/Audism (2011) by Patrick Nordell and Tomas Kold Erlandsen and The Mask of Benevolence: