ABSTRACT
Psychological judgement can be very comprehensive: not only may individuals' status be assessed from the material and moral aspect, but it is quite likely also to be considered from an aesthetic standpoint. Psychologists, as the arbiters of 'normal' behaviour and experience, function precisely as judges, and the majority make little attempt to disguise it. A particularly damaging effect of the obsession with normality which conventional psychology and psychiatry do so much to reinforce is to make people doubt the validity of our own experience. Breaking the anxious silence which dread of 'normality' tends to impose on people's revelation of their own experience can be tremendously reassuring. For the normalising eye – whether of the professional diagnostician or merely the everyday, defensive scrutiny of invidious comparison – is cynical, suspicious and unsympathetic. The proper attitude of those seeking to help people in distress is one of appreciation and respect.
