Learn how the idea of a ‘normal’ person got invented – in this piece by Todd Rose, adapted from his groundbreaking book The End of Average.  To better understand the issue with ‘normal’ in connection to mental health, see Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness by Christopher Lane or The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through The Madness Industry by Jon Ronson, more specifically the chapter about the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.To see how problematic IQ testing is, watch these TED-Ed videos: Should we get rid of standardized testing? and The dark history of IQ tests. To learn more about Eugenics, Norma and Normman, and the concept of ‘the normal body’ – including in the contexts of disability, sexuality and gender identity – a good place to start is Normality: A Critical Genealogy by Elizabeth Stephens & Peter Cryle. On the cultural assumptions governing our conception of people with disabilities, see Enforcing Normalcy: Disability, Deafness and the Body by Lennard J. Davis.  To learn more how the concept of ‘normal’ has been weaponized against people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, Roma and other groups in Nazi Gemany, see this material by UK’s Center for Holocaust Education. Behavioral scientists routinely publish broad claims about human psychology and behavior on samples drawn entirely from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies. То learn more about why this is problematic, check out The weirdest people in the world by Joseph Henrich, Steven J. Heine and Ara Norenzayan. Interested in the history of the word normal? See this article on Merriam Webster: What exactly is “Normal”?.

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