Corps-à-corps dans le travail éducatif auprès des personnes en situation de handicap avec déficience intellectuelle

Abstract

Based on a survey of educators working at socio-educational institutions in French-speaking Switzerland, the article analyses the close physical relationships between professionals and people with an intellectual disability. Using observations and educator interviews, the authors highlight the active dimensions associated with this kind of work - physicality (the act of touching) and emotionality (the act of being touched) – as well as its passive dimension (the act of wanting to be touched). This latter dimension, addressed through the prism of sexualisation, care and physical restraint, reveals issues related to educational teams’ professionality.

Keywords

• social work
• physical contact
• education
• disability