ABSTRACT
Normal and abnormal are opinion words with multiple meanings and countless usages that are typically and regularly employed to persuade and manipulate. It is mind-boggling that the mental health industry is built on these two words that are about as solid as sand. The consequences of conscience, reason, and awareness are labeled abnormal, and robotic allegiance to wearing a pasted-on smiley face is designated normal. Sadness, guilt, rage, disappointment, confusion, doubt, anxiety, and other similar experiences and states are all expected and normal, given the nature and demands of life; except, that is, to mental health professionals, where those states and experiences become markers of abnormality and cash cows. The mental disorder business, where folks sit around a table and turn “symptom pictures” into “mental disorders,” rests on the Orwellian conceit that the average person is gullible enough to believe that there is a clear meaning to the word “normal” and a clear meaning to the word “abnormal".
