The Mask Of Benevolence

There lives among us a minority whose members are often forbidden to use their own language and compelled to learn one they will never be able to speak.  The professionals who minister to them often treat them with a mixture of paternalism and colonial contempt.  Increasingly, the medical establishment has sought to “treat” their difference through highly invasive surgery-although such treatment, Lane argues, serves the doctors’ interest more than the patients.

The minority is the deaf, a group whose concerns and mistreatment are explained with incisive brilliance by MacArthur Fellow Harlan Lane in this electrifying book. Synthesizing research in fields from anthropology to education.  The Mask of Benevolence makes us see the deaf the way they see themselves, eloquently and persuasively.

Harlan Lane, Author

Published by Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc. NY