Normal is relative

 What is normal? Let's find out today. 

Courtesy of thesimplecatholic.blog

First of all, we need to consider that people come from different regions, countries, homelives, and traditions. We are raised uniquely and with different personalities attached. Normal to one person can be abnormal to another. I can point out lifestyle choices that make sense to me, but not to others raised in cities. Even in the same region habits differ. 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as 

"a: conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern: characterized by that which is considered usual, typical, or routine

b: according with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule, procedure, or principle"

As well as free of impairment or occurring naturally. 

From this, we can glean that normal is meeting the standard set without deviation and being without impairment. By this definition, I can already see that asylums (which hid the 'abnormal') functioned based off of societal standards that were broken already. The standard is not always good, nor is it always bad. Some standards have a reason, in fact, most do. It just depends on the society setting the standard whether it is good or bad. Can you name the unspoken standards you feel the pressure to adhere to? 

Misconceptions

Psychology Today says the two misconceptions for normal are a poor understanding of human variations and an assumption that the average of the population is socially 'right'. This means punishment of the people who deviate is inevitable. Deviants (or abnormal people) have harder lives. I can name many examples, like minorities or those that question the normal standard. I felt this way in some social groups. This doesn't mean 'anything goes', but does mean we need to understand that social variations make our world continue on rather than constricting us to an eternal minimal standard.

Courtesy of Reddit

I looked into asylums and the cold war era and found that people who were not quick to take up 'normal' got put into the asylum perfectly sane or got marked part of the Communist party. This explains why the 1950s were so cookie-cutter (fear). It also explains how a lot of people got out of the asylum via appeals once their rights were returned to them.

Psychopathic behavior or misunderstood behavior?

There is a disorder that literally is someone only caring for themselves, but social deviants also got the term psychopath applied to them. In 2004 it was suggested they assess normal and abnormal by the 4 Ds; deviance, distress, dysfunction, and danger. It also has to be considered through the lens of that place and the culture. Deviance in this scenario has to be viewed with that in mind. Distress has to do with stress levels. Danger is either a threat to themselves or others (or both). This person could be starving themselves in order to commit suicide or violent towards others. Dysfunction explains itself - basically, can they function well? You get the idea. Abnormal behaviors can be categorized as disorders (in some cases they are and sometimes they are not). 

Normal is used as a form of measurement. It often does discourage people when we say success in areas such-and-such is normal, especially when they struggle to keep up (me in math as a kid). Humans have different talents, perspectives, beliefs, and ways of viewing the world. My view of the world is not yours, nor is yours mine. You may not value what I value or have seen what I've seen. The point is that not all social deviance is bad. Serial killers are a whole other issue, of course, but the extremes aside we are all raised in different ways to value different things. 

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Sources:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/normal

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/busting-myths-about-human-nature/201403/why-normal-is-myth#:~:text=The%20myth%20of%20normal%20tells,very%20strong%20and%20very%20wrong.

https://medium.com/psych-pstuff/one-persons-abnormal-is-another-person-s-normal-af61575fd8d9

https://www.avalonmalibu.com/blog/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-normal-person/

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/16/713798970/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-normal-person