Broken Promises: The Interpretation of a Focused Career History

Abstract

A commonplace in social services for the mentally handicapped holds that the 'best and the brightest always leave this field'. In order to study some of the dynamics of this stereotype, the life history genre was used to interpret one such case: a young woman pseudonymed Vivian who showed unusual commitment, yet who quit that field of service. In 1984 she tape recorded details of her 13 years as a residential counsellor with mentally handicapped people in southern Ontario.