Adjustment to Misfortune

Adjustment to Misfortune: A Problem of Social-Psychological Rehabilitation, Tamara Dembo, PhD, Gloria Ladieu Leviton, PhD, and Beatrice Ann Wright, PhD. Rehabilitation Psychology, 22(1), 1975.

Allen Heinemann, a student of Professor Wright, wrote this summary for the Foundation for Rehabilitation Psychology.

Tamara Dembo (1902-1993) was a Russian-born American psychologist who pioneered psychological field theory and rehabilitation psychology. As a doctoral student at the University of Berlin, she studied with pioneers of gestalt psychology including Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Köhler, Kurt Lewin, and Max Wertheimer. She emphasized “asset-mindedness,” focusing on individuals’ strengths rather than limitations, and advocated for environmental modifications to accommodate people with disabilities.

Gloria Ladieu Leviton (1918-1973) was a respected teacher and researcher in psychology who made significant contributions to social-psychological rehabilitation. ​ She joined Dembo and Wright at Stanford University in 1945 to study relationships between people with and without disabilities. She worked to improve communication between rehabilitation professionals and their clients, and emphasized the importance of involving people with disabilities in decision-making processes that affect their lives. ​

Beatrice Ann Wright (1917-2018) was a prominent rehabilitation psychologist who had a large influence on the field with her seminal work, “Physical Disability—A Psychological Approach” (1960, revised 1983). She was influenced by her egalitarian upbringing and mentors Solomon Asch, Abraham Maslow, and Kurt Lewin. Her work focused on the psychosocial aspects of disability and challenged prevailing biases by emphasizing the influence of environmental and social factors.

Only a few mimeographed copies of Dembo, Leviton, and Wright’s 1948 monograph survived when, a decade later, it was published in Artificial Limbs, a semi-annual publication of the Prosthetics Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council. Division 22’s journal, Rehabilitation Psychology, reprinted the monograph in 1975. This seminal work laid the foundation for Wright’s 1960 book and the field of rehabilitation psychology.

This publication was truly groundbreaking and recognized as one of the initial studies that established the field of rehabilitation psychology. It reframed how we understand the experience of physical disability and how people navigate the associated challenges. The research introduced key concepts that are still relevant today. The authors  highlighted how dealing with misfortune such as limb loss involves a process of re-evaluating one's values and accepting loss. They emphasized the benefits of focusing on one's abilities, a concept known as 'asset-mindedness', in the rehabilitation journey. The study examined the complex social dynamics between individuals with and without injuries, and introduced the idea of disability as a 'value loss' that shapes interactions, providing early insights into the social-psychological aspects of rehabilitation.

The American Psychological Association granted permission to link this article on the Foundation’s website.