Social Role Valorization Theory

Wolf Wolfensberger's theory of Social Role Valorization (SRV) is extremely interesting in how it talks about the concept of wounding. When thinking outside of SRV, wounding means hurting something through physical force; but in terms of SRV, wounding means hurting someone's psyche and emotions. Wounding in context of SRV talks about harming people mentally, physically, and emotionally, which is different from how we usually think of wounding in our everyday lives. In Wolfensberger's book, "A Brief Introduction To Social Role Valorization," (2013) he states, "These things can badly wound a person's psyche, spirit or soul, and result in a very distorted or disturbed relationship of the wounded person to the world, and especially to other people" (p. 41). The "things" that Wolfensberger is eluding to include unreliable relationships with normal people, being unable to participate in a normally functioning society, and being withheld from religion in all aspects.
Wolfensberger talks about how devalued people ultimately are cut out of a normally functioning society and are labeled pretty much as outcasts. This idea not only hurts the person's mental state, but also their physical. When people are cut out of society, there health begins to drop because of their exclusion from jobs and places to live. When people are not able to make money or live in housing that will keep a person warm and safe, they become poor and labeled as homeless. When devalued people become poor, they ultimately are not able to afford the necessary healthcare needed to help them, which ultimately leads to the person becoming sick. The possible physical deterioration of a devalued person causes that person to be labeled as a person not worthy of living in normal society, and harms them in ways that a lot of times cannot be