Attitudes towards disability in society viewed through the lens of critical disability theory: An analysis ofMe Before You

Abstract

Using a recent, widely-distributed film (that provoked strong reactions and protest across the globe) as its focus, this paper attempts to illustrate the construction of disability as created by the able-bodied majority to be primarily a societal issue of inequality and social justice.Analysis of the film is made using the component parts of Critical Disability Theory (CDT) as a framework with which to identify and disentangle factors that reveal the social construction of disability.The paper identifies factors that, combined, form a dark and potentially sinister objective conceptualisation of disability by the able-bodied that sees disability as a fate worse than death.By bringing to life through analysis the assertion that ‘the personal is political’, the paper suggests that maintaining a reflexive awareness of such negative portrayals of disability is an ethical obligation of counselling psychologists as ambassadors of social justice.