We explain what normality is, why it depends on the point of view and its social use. Also, other uses of the term.
What is normality?
We understand normality as the condition of everything that is normal, that is, anything that conforms to norms or responds to common expectations that which is not extraordinary in any measure (neither positive nor negative).
This can mean, as the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy suggests, that normal is that which “is in its natural state”, or that “is habitual or ordinary”, or that “serves as a norm or rule”.
The word normality comes from normal, and this in turn comes from norma, a word that in Latin was used to name the square used by bricklayers and carpenters, with which they could check that their works followed the desired measurements (that is, the measurements regular, predictable, habitual). This word appears to be a loanword from the Greek word we glorify: “what is well known” or “what is completely known.”
The normal, however, (and therefore, the normality that can be constructed from it) is never an absolute and universal term, but rather It depends on the point of view and the context .
For example, it is normal for a wild animal to eat its food raw, while humans consume it cooked; So if we see a wild animal cooking or a human being eating another animal raw, we can say that we are in the presence of something unusual or unusual, that is, something abnormal.
There is, thus, a parameter of normality for almost all things and all areas of human knowledge, always related to the expectations we have of said matters.
Thus, for example, in medicine and public health this term is used to describe a relative health situation of a patient or a population, which does not mean that there are no diseases or that no one is dying; But compared to the outbreak of an epidemic, certain margins of illness and death are considered normal.
In other areas it is more problematic to talk about normality. For example, when it comes to the formation of couples in most societies, what is normal is associated with heterosexual couples, despite the fact that homosexual couples have always existed in the history of humanity: in the In ancient Greece, male homosexuality was completely normal.
This means that considerations about normality vary greatly over time and that it is always problematic to take strict positions on social and human issues.
The French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984), in fact, wrote an important theoretical work on the way in which the idea of “normality” has been used over time to discriminate against certain individuals and impose certain moral and political parameters. , with the excuse of fighting something “abnormal” or “unnatural.”
Even today there are “conversion therapies” and other dangerous practices with which some conservative sectors seek to “cure” or “normalize” homosexual people, usually causing them irreparable harm in the process.
That is why in many cases the word “normed” is used to differentiate this relationship between human behavior and social rules from the normal, that is, from the usual state in which things occur by themselves in nature.
Other uses of the term normality
In the field of chemistry, the term Normality (expressed with the sign N) or Normal Concentration is used to express the concentration relationship that exists in a solution between the solute and the solvent . This relationship is expressed in chemical equivalents (EQ) or gram-equivalents of solute per liter of solution, and depends largely on the type of chemical reaction involved.
References
- “Normal (psychology)” on Wikipedia.
- “Normality” in the Language Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
- “Etymology of Normal” in the Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary.
- “Check to normality” in EFE Salud.
- “Examples of normality” in Químicas.net.
