Do mentally retarded people have the same feelings as anyone else?
I have worked with mentally and developmentally challenged people of all ages and both sexes; additionally, I have worked with “normal” people of all ages and both sexes in therapeutic and developmental situations. It is my opinion that all people are born with the capacity to feel a wide range of emotions. Many–if not most–of us are shaped, wounded, and/or trained to accept or deny some, most, or all of them. In other words, it’s a wide combination of experiences and resultant behaviors. In my opinion, the bottom line is not whether we feel an emotion, but whether we acknowledge it and whether we express it. Your associate felt gratitude, owned it as his feeling, and expressed it to you. This benefited both of you! What a blessing. Many “normal” people cannot do this basic thing.
