The constitution of difference: Space and psyche in landscapes of exclusion

Negative reactions to the siting of group homes for persons with disabilities have at their center a public intolerance of ‘difference’. We can better understand these reactions by exploring the connection between the organization of social space and the structure of the psyche. Drawing from psychoanalytic theory, I suggest that because people internalize social norms as a condition for subjective becoming, their own sense of identity is to some extent dependent upon the maintenance of surrounding social and spatial order. This link helps to explain the anxiety underlying opposition to group homes and analogous facilities. The transgression implied by the siting threatens not only the social order, but also the bases of residents' own identities. A case-study involving the recent siting of an AIDS hospice is used to illustrate this theoretical discussion.