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What is mental health and normality? We cannot now provide a definitive answer to this question, since such an answer must eventually evolve out of new research and new experiences. Because cultural and personal values and biases are so intimately tied to one's definition of normality, it is doubtful whether even in the long run we will have a single definition of normality. We shall attempt, however, to delineate the perspectives of normality, evaluate some of the current research on normal populations, and point to new directions which promise to elucidate the issues still further.
THE FOUR PERSPECTIVES OF NORMALITY
We have been able to define what we call the four "functional perspectives" of normality:7 Normality as Health, Normality as Utopia, Normality as Average and Normality as Process. Although each perspective is unique and has its own definition and description the perspectives do complement each other, so that together they represent the total behavioral and social sciences approach to normality.
The first, Normality as Health, is basically the traditional psychiatric approach to health and illness. Most physicians equate normality with health and view health as an almost universal phenomenon. As a result, behavior is assumed to be within normal limits when no manifest psychopathology is present. If we were to transpose all behavior onto a scale, normality would encompass the major portion and abnormality would be the small remainder. This definition of normality correlates with the traditional model of the physician who attempts to free his patient from observable signs and symptoms, for to this physician the lack of signs and symptoms indicates health. In other words, health in this context refers to a reasonable rather than an optimal state of function. Romano1' states this perspective in its simplest form when he says that a healthy person is one who is reasonably free of undue pain, discomfort and disability.
The second perspective, Normality ns Utopia, conceives of normality as that harmonious blending of the diverse elements within the mental apparatus that culminates in optimal functioning. It emerges clearly when psychiatrists or psychoanalysts talk about the ideal person, or when they grapple with a complex problem such as their criteria for successful treatment. This approach goes directly back to Freud's statement," "A normal ego is like...