Under the old Mental Health catergories these were divided by IQ levels if my memory serves me right, worst of categories was imbecile these were usually people with an IQ of less than 60 with serious mental and/or physical deformiites. Idiots were people with IQ less than 70 and Feeble-minded fell between 70 and 90. I may be a bit out on actual figures but not that much. All could have physical problems as well as what we now call learning difficulties. There was also another category Moral Defectives this was usually given to women who had illigitimate children or lived off immoral earnings and could be sectioned and incarcerated under the Mental Health Act. Incidentally, as a retired nurse for what was then termed Mentally Handicapped people, we had in our care a lady who was locked away for the sole offence of having an illigitmate child, she was in her late teens when sectioned and although under the Mental Health Act of 1959 was free to leave, having only known institutional life for 40 years did not wish to do so. She was still alive in the late 80's and her daughter visited her regularly. Its sounds likely that your relative could have suffered with Cerebral Palsy (spasticity) and although may or may not have had normal IQ, because of the poor knowledge of these conditions at the time and lack of therapy and speech aids, may have been thought to have low IQ. The film My Left Foot illustrates this very well but he was proved to have normal IQ when ways of helping him communicate were discovered. Lunatics were people who would now be classed as having Mental Illness and come under the Psychiatric umbrella. Hope this helps. Lorraine
