Reflexions about normality and social deviation

Abstract

The article shows how our society has created one of the oppositions that structures it. It starts with a historic reconstruction of the normalization process to introduce the powerful social-scientific movement of Eugenics and the heredity theory behind it. We analyze the social category of the abnormal as a product of discourses and social practices, in short, historically. The article also presents few considerations about the polarity normality and pathology in contemporary society. The focus is on the persistence of the theories that naturalize individual differences and social disparities.