The mental disorder business, where folks sit around a table and turn symptom pictures into mental disorders, rests on the Orwellian conceit that the average person is gullible enough to believe that there is a clear meaning to the word normal and a clear meaning to the word abnormal. Anyone willing to give the matter a seconds thought would see that these words have so many usages as to empty them of meaning. But few people are willing to give the matter that seconds thought.

It is one of our more astounding places of intellectual shoddiness not to seeand not to shout it out loudthat the word normal is used in so many various and contradictory ways as to render the word both useless and ridiculous. It is a preposterous word, a dangerous word, and an offensive word. And if you dont agree with me, youre not normal!

Here, in lightning fashion, are 29 ways that the word normal is used in discourse about members of our species.

1. Normal = customary

It is normal for a human being to believe in gods.

2. Normal = customary in context

It was normal for French postmodernists to wear kimonos and other unusual attire.

3. Normal = predictable

Given that he was hungry, that no one was watching, and that the apple pie was just sitting there, it was normal for him to steal a piece.

4. Normal = desirable

It isnt normal for our kids not to want their own kids.

5. Normal = acceptable

It isnt normal for a person to walk out during the eulogy. People should know better.

6. Normal = time-limited

It was normal for her to feel sad about the death of her husband but its been two years now.

7. Normal = possible

Since some human beings have been cannibals, eating your enemy is a normal human behavior.

8. Normal = motivated

Once we understood her motives her behavior struck us as completely normal.

9. Normal = rational

He answered all of my questions in a completely rational manner and seemed normal to me.

10. Normal = happy

Shed been unhappy for a long time but shes more normal now, more like her old self.

11. Normal = becalmed

Hed beenanxiousand agitated for months before the premiere of his play but hes much more normal now.

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12. Normal = free of torment

I had no idea he was so tormented by crazy existential angst about the meaning of life! I thought he was more normal than that.

13. Normal = restrained

He used to flare up terribly and get enraged but hes much more normal now.

14. Normal = controlled

Johnny used to be so fidgety in class but now that hes on those three medications he can sit still like a normal student.

15. Normal = self-interested

It is completely normal not to want to blow the whistle at work if that would cost you your job.

16. Normal = not sad

He was feeling blue at his last job but hes feeling much more normal at his new job.

17. Normal = average

Hisintelligencefalls within the normal range.

18. Normal = moral

Homosexuals are sinners. They arent normal.

19. Normal = legal

Its normal to drive a little over the speed limit but he was going ninety.

20. Normal = age appropriate

Thats normal behavior for a two-year-old.

21. Normal = developmentally appropriate

Its normal to act and feel that way when you leave home for the first time.

22. Normal = free of compulsion

He used to drink alcoholically but now he can drink normally.

23. Normal = free of obsession

He used to obsess about meeting Marilyn Monroe in Heaven but now he has normal interests.

24. Normal = free of biological defect

His brain tumor is preventing him from thinking and acting normally.

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25. Normal = free of psychological defect

How could anyone be normal with a mother like that?

26. Normal = free ofspiritualdefect

The devil got a hold of him for a few years but he fought the devil off and now hes normal again.

27. Normal = free ofpersonalitydefect

Hershynesswas really hampering her but now she can speak up like a normal person.

28. Normal = free of social defect

He was living a very isolated life but now he goes out like any normal person.

29. Normal = free of unnamable defect

We cant say whats wrong with him but he just isnt normal.

Have I captured every sense and usage of the word normal? Of course I havent. Are some of these innocent enough and hardly worth railing against? Of course they are. But the main point remains. The word normal cant be saved. It and abnormal should vanish from our human conversation. What would happen if we simply got rid of the words normal and abnormal? We would gain clarity, integrity, and a shot at dealing in new and better ways with what actually ails human beings.

Is a cannibal normal? Is a kimono-clad postmodernist normal? Is a widow still grieving normal? Is a passive, medicated child normal? Is it more normal to drink or more normal to abstain? Everything is normal turned this way or that! And, dangerously, everything is abnormal. When we use words this loosely they become weapons of destruction.

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More than a hundred years of language analysis has not helped us all that much in understanding that the words we use matter. It is perhaps not in the nature of our speciesnot normal (wink, wink)for a sufficient number of people to care enough about the terrible consequences of lame naming (consequences like forcing three, four, or five normalizing medications on a child). I see no hope for any change, as this intellectual shoddiness and carelessness look to be perfectly normal.

This post was previously published on psychologytoday.com.

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The 29 Senses of Normal - The Good Men Project