Bengt Nirje on Normalization

Bengt Nirje: I have used the quality of life definition because the principle of normalization, I use the word integrity. I did it mixed with integration and say that integration means that when you are able to be yourself among others, where you are able and allowed to be yourself among others. That is integration. Now that has to do with your own dignity and it has to do with your relationship with others. And I contend that the… some kind of context when you have made definitions of quality of life in the way we are used to have it in Scandinavia. It has to do with to say realizing yourself and to feel that your resources, your positive attributes are taken into the picture and that are some [Inaudible] situations where there are choices to make, where you have an influence on choices, and that you are being yourself as a competent person and can be… and that you can accept yourself. That has everything to do with… and that has to do with the principle of normalization, which is exactly the same thing as to say that this has to do with our understanding of equality and human rights.