Shakespeare Redux, or <i>Romeo and Juliet</i> Revisited: Embedding a Terminology and Name Change in a New Agenda for the Field of Mental Retardation

Abstract

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare asked, ‘‘What’s in a name?’’ That is an apt question for the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) and a suitable introduction to our article. We begin by addressing three major objections to a change in the name of AAMR and in the terminology now titled mental retardation. (We acknowledge that these issues are related but not identical, as we point out later.) These objections are as fol