On the normative possibilities in psychology and psychiatry

Abstract

Considering an historical link it is possible to show how both the medical and the psychological eyes are direct to a clinical distinction between normality and pathology. By the medical side normality is conceived exclusively from an organic standpoint. By the psychiatric and psychological side instead, the issue becomes extremely more complex. Throughout history several theoretical options have been offered to face the problem. However, from the DSM-III onward, psychiatric nosology has abandoned all theoretical references and by doing so, it looses any theoretical support assuming an ambiguous common sense prospect. All the psychological and psychiatric difficulties in defining a condition of normality can be traced back to an epistemological obstacle that constrains any theoretical attempt to a cultural relativity.