With This Body

This text examines the views both of younger people who become disabled after marriage and of their partners who become involved in helping and supporting them. It explores the giving and receiving of personal care in marriage, and the role of informal networks, services and income in supporting these couples and their children. It shows how, in the absence of help and support from elsewhere, couples are left in an extremely precarious position - practically, financially, emotionally, and socially. Disabled people argue the need for resources and services that would allow them to be independent of "informal" help. This book shows that age, class, gender and existing power relations in the marriage affect the experience of both disability and caring and the extent to which "independence" from informal help is seen by either partner as a legitimate or desirable goal.