Human behaviour is the end result of many skills and desires. In the case of mental retardation, these skills and desires appear to be weakened, impoverished, and distorted. The condition inappropriately labelled "retardation" is little known and poorly quantified. Two authoritative scholars of childhood neuropsychiatry - scientists who have dedicated many years of work to recovering children and adolescents plagued by mental retardation and to training professionals who work with them - explain what happens to people suffering from retardation and show how the human mind, although it can be injured, may never be destroyed. It is precisely this fact that always makes rehabilitation possible. This volume is a precious tool for parents, teachers, social workers, psychiatrists, and anyone else interested in understanding and rehabilitation: any human being can achieve a greater behavioural autonomy and enjoys the right to live his or her affective, family, and social life to the fullest.

Pietro Pfanner and Mara Marcheschi teach Childhood Neuropsychiatry at the University of Pisa.