The book takes a civil rights perspective to the problems of handicapped children and adults and points out that no other minority group has its social and political oppression so thoroughly masked as the disabled in America. Part I looks at why American society has traditionally failed to view the handicapped as an oppressed social group. Three chapters address handicap as a social construction, the handicapped role, and handicap in relation to the social pathology model. Part II criticizes and then offers constructive alternatives to the ways that psychologists usually study how handicapped children grow up. The first chapter in this section considers the case for a developmental psychology of handicap and is followed by three chapters which address social, personality, and intellectual development. Part III (four chapters) focuses on the professional and some of the most important services he provides to handicapped children and their parents. In Part IV (three chapters), the authors discuss the ignorance and confusion that surrounds the employment problems of disabled adults. Appendixes, which make up a major part of the book, include the following: four articles on the psychological aspects of handicap titled "Analysis of a Boy with a Congenital Deformity" (A. Lussier); "Excerpts from the Analysis of a Child with a Congenital Defect" (R. Furman); "The 'Exceptions': An Elaboration of Freud's Character Study" (E. Jacobson); and "Narcissistic Ego Impairment in Patients with Early Physical Malformations" (W. Niederland; reports on the sexuality of the severely disabled, problems with relationships between able bodied and handicapped people, and comprehensive disability insurance; and a report by K. Messenger and J. Gliedman titled "Medicine and Handicap: A Promise in Search of a National Commitment." (SBH)