Other Reliance: Transcendentalism, Mental Disability, and Ethics of Care

Abstract This essay situates the Transcendentalist movement in relation to the history of caregiving for those deemed intellectually or psychologically unsound. For Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller—both of whom took on caregiving responsibilities for mentally disabled siblings at key points in their professional development, compulsory or semi-voluntary acts of caregiving for those adjudged incapable of managing their own affairs shadowed their famous commitment to “self-reliance.” The experiences of Robert Bulkeley Emerson, Edward Bliss Emerson, and Lloyd Fuller, when read through the lens of feminist and disability studies theories of interdependency, demonstrate that the Transcendentalist movement’s ideal of the autonomous individual was frequently tested and defined in relation to notions of mental soundness, intellectual capacity, and economic productivity.