The soviet flag.
The original French medical term[]
The Soviet term “Oligophrenic”, was analogous to mentally retarded and feeble-minded. It was first coined in the 18th century and was also subdivided it into 3 sub-categories: debile (weak), imbecile and idiot.
The Soviet term[]
"Oligophrenic" (Russian: олигофрения) {noun- feminine} literally meant "small brained" and feeble-minded.
It was a catchall term for any form of mental childhood problem. It was borrowed from the 18th century French medical usage and morally subverted by the communist government of the USSR. Nicolae Ceaușescu's Romania also used this term and system on rebellious, druggy, criminal minded and retarded kids as well.
Occurrence in the USSR[]
The Soviet Union published a paper on it between 1970 and 1980 in Defectologia (Defectology) and Voprosy Psikhologii (Problems of Psychology). The major findings reveal that there are more males than females among the oligophrenic and seriously mentally ill.
Diagnosis[]
Any children who had shown no signs of illness at birth, but then fell behind in school, behaved in a antisocial way to their classmates and\or got poor grades were sent off for further tests by child psychiatrists. They also risk being found to be oligophrenic. Any of these primitive diagnoses condemns the child concerned to life in a mental-home.
Druggies, AIDS victims and dissident's children were also banged up in Soviet mental homes in the 1960s and 1970s.
The 2018 Christian Solidarity International (CSI) investigation[]
A group-administered screening test showed 1/3 of the accused children in a St. Petersburg institution were misclassified as "oligophrenic" with varying degrees of severity: 18 of the 50 children (36%) assessed scored within normal mental developmental limits.
UNICEF and the Council of Europe had reached similar conclusion on a 1998 visit to a Moscow mental institute.
The location of the mental homes[]
The 6 most notorious of these were in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, Vladivostok, Kiev and Minsk.
Joubert syndrome[]
Overview[]
Joubert syndrome or Oligophrenic syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder that affects the cerebellum, an area of the brain that controls balance and coordination.
Joubert syndrome is one of the many genetic syndromes associated with syndromic retinitis pigmentosa. The syndrome was first identified in 1969 by pediatric neurologist Marie Joubert in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, while working at the Montreal Neurological Institute and McGill University.
Signs and symptoms[]
Most of the signs and symptoms of the Joubert syndrome appear very early in infancy with most children showing delays in gross motor milestones. Although other signs and symptoms vary widely from individual to individual, they generally fall under the hallmark of cerebellum involvement or in this case, lack thereof. Consequently, the most common features include ataxia (lack of muscle control), hyperpnea (abnormal breathing patterns), sleep apnea, abnormal eye and tongue movements, and hypotonia in early childhood. Other malformations such as polydactyly (extra fingers and toes), cleft lip or palate, tongue abnormalities, and seizures may also occur. Developmental delays, including cognitive, are always present to some degree.
Those suffering from this syndrome often exhibit specific facial features such as a broad forehead, arched eyebrows, ptosis (droopy eyelids), hypertelorism (widely spaced eyes), low-set ears and a triangle shaped mouth. Additionally, this disease can include a broad range of other abnormalities to other organ systems such as retinal dystrophy, kidney diseases, liver diseases, skeletal deformities and endocrine (hormonal) problems.
There is very often absence or underdevelopment of the cerebellar vermis and a malformed brain stem (molar tooth sign).
Occurrence[]
Joubert syndrome type 2 is disproportionately frequent among people of Jewish descent.
Those actively investigating it[]
- UNICEF
- Council of Europe
- Christian Solidarity International
Also see[]
Sources[]
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2753/RUP1061-194008020304377
- https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Joubert_syndrome
- http://s25.photobucket.com/user/SpanOws/media/UKcoalimports_zpsecc3d16b.jpg.html
- http://articles.latimes.com/1997-02-22/news/mn-31267_1_russia-s-forgotten-children/2
- http://www.bgcenter.com/bgqa/oligo5.htm
- https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports98/russia2/Russ98d-02.htm
- http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/oligophrenia
- https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports98/russia2/Russ98d-02.htm
- http://www.elsash-tv.com/doc-angel.html
- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oligophrenia
- https://academicebook.com/ebooks/educational-psychology-in-the-ussr-1820455
- https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports98/russia2/Russ98d-02.htm
- http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/002246698201600311
- http://www.bgcenter.com/bgqa/oligo5.htm
- http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/002246698201600311
- https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports98/russia2/Russ98d-02.htm
- http://articles.latimes.com/1997-02-22/news/mn-31267_1_russia-s-forgotten-children/2
- https://glosbe.com/en/ru/oligophrenia
- https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-12-28/half-million-kids-survived-romanias-slaughterhouses-souls-now-they-want-justice
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2800147/
- https://abchealthonline.com/6583919-oligophrenia-forms-degrees-and-causes-diagnosis-treatment