Mental health and the manufacture of normality: a criticism to the excesses of the normalcy ideal from Foucault and Canguilhem’s Work

Authors

  • Magali Milene Silva Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v12i1.8322

Keywords:

mental health, normalization, mental treatment, difference

Abstract

Revising the discussions made by Georges Canguilhem and Michel Foucault, this study was intended to characterize the conceptual construction of “mental illness” as fully related to social rules. The concept of “illness” involves a socially based judgment about some manifestations which establishes them as inadequate. Often in Medicine, biological data (chemical or physiological), is used to judge difference as illness. In Mental Health, on the other hand, the rules used to define the pathological cannot be supported by biological data - they are clearly situated in the field of values. Mental illness, correlated to abnormality, is defined according to the social rules, and these concepts are applied to those who do not submit to these rules. In this sense, the goal of mental treatments would be the normalization of individuals, adapting them to these rules. Through ethical reflection however, it is possible for the field of Mental Health to go beyond social adaptation, making possible the expression of difference and creativity.

 

Keywords: mental health; normalization; mental treatment; difference.

Author Biography

Magali Milene Silva, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Mestre em psicologia pela UFMG.

Downloads

How to Cite

Silva, M. M. (2008). Mental health and the manufacture of normality: a criticism to the excesses of the normalcy ideal from Foucault and Canguilhem’s Work. Interação Em Psicologia, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v12i1.8322

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2008)

Section

Articles

License

The approval of articles implies the immediate acceptance, with no imposition, that the journal Interação em Psicologia will have the exclusivity of the first publication of the article. The authors will, notwithstanding, keep the copyrights for future publications. In case of republication of the articles in other media, it is demanded the mention to the first publication in the journal Interação em Psicologia. The authors also authorize their articles to be available in all the indexes of which the journal is included. 

The Editorial Board is not responsible for the concepts or statements expressed in the published works, which are the sole responsibility of their authors.

The journal Interação em Psicologia offers immediate open access to all its content, following the rationale that offering gratuitous scientific knowledge to the public promotes the democracy of knowledge and published works tend to produce higher impact. The published articles in the journal are available under the Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). According to this license, the access, distribution, reusing of the articles for non-commercial sources are allowed, provided that the authors and the source is referenced. When submitting articles to the journal Interação em Psicologia, authors agree with making their texts legally available based on this license.