Canguilhem's "Normal and the Pathological"

Author Georges Canguilhem attempts to define the concepts of normal and pathological through arguments of his own, as well as through other authors. He first recognizes the ambiguity that comes with the term “normal” and states its two meanings. The first meaning is that it refers to observing a species and finding an average measurement of a particular trait to relate the rest of the species to, and the second meaning states that the term can designate an ideal or perfect form. These meanings come from a variety of doctors and their perspectives on these concepts.
To begin, Canguilhem considers the remarks of Bichat and his perspective on vitalism stresses “irregularity of vital phenomena.” Canguilhem then includes a refutation by Claude Bernard to Bichat, which he later disagrees with. Bernard believes that there is an ideal type for everything, but this ideal state is never reached because if it were there would be no uniqueness among humans and everyone would resemble each other. But Canguilhem states that Bernard’s recognition that there exists individuality actually confirms Bichat’s perspective on irregularity. He concludes there is no absolute meaning of the term “normal,” but that it should be found by relating an individual with its surroundings.
Furthermore, Kurt Goldstein believes the unhealthiness occurs when a human being’s equilibrium with its surroundings is dangerously disturbed and cannot adapt. Rene Leriche believes in the physiological over the anatomical to determine health. But Hays Selye encompasses both Goldstein and Leriche to define health as both having a functional (like Goldstein believed) and morphological aspect to it. To summarize, the pathological state of disease is regulated by norms that are depreciated and prevent the person from living the life it was before the disease. And health can be measured by a person’s capacity to overcome any kind of norms to establish a “new physiological order.”








Works Cited
Canguilhem, Georges. “The Normal and the Pathological.” Knowledge of Life. Trans. Stefanos Geroulanos and Daniela Ginsburg. New York: Fordham UP, 2008. 121-133.