“Normality”: concept of how many faces?

Authors

  • Cláudia Rodrigues de Freitas Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5902/1984686X6874

Keywords:

Normality. Special Education. Medicalization

Abstract

This paper is intended to analyze how the concept of “normality”, divided in normal and abnormal, has been taking shape in our time, based on Canguilhem’s and Foucault’s views. By analyzing the theory, I recognize evidence of a process of biologization of life which revisits itself and takes new shapes over the last years through the process of medicalization. Medicalization is the current controlling device and cannot be boiled down to prescribing medication, but we can also think of it as a gear, as a machine that transforms life into objects. As evidence of this analysis, a school situation intended to illustrate the concepts addressed is presented. The aforementioned situation was observed at the Municipal School System of Porto Alegre. Scholastic discourse generates different ways of acting and living in the school, but is it intended to do so?

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Published

2012-11-09

How to Cite

Freitas, C. R. de. (2012). “Normality”: concept of how many faces?. Special Education Magazine, 25(44), 483–498. https://doi.org/10.5902/1984686X6874

Issue

Revista Educação Especial, v. 25, n. 44, set./dez. 2012

Section

Dossier: Special Education Evaluation

License

Declaration of originality

We declare that all articles present in the journal Revista Educação Especial (UFSM) are originals and were not submitted for publishing on any other publication, as a whole or a fraction.  We also declare that, after being published by Revista Educação Especial (UFSM), a paper will not be submitted to another journal within two years. After this time, our journal transfers the publishing rights to the authors, with a permit granted by the Editorial Council.

We also acknowledge that the originals’ submission to Revista Educação Especial (UFSM) implies on a transference of copyright for physical and digital publishing to the journal. In case of noncompliance, the violator will receive sanctions and penalties predicted by the Brazilian Copyright Protection Law (n. 9610, dated 19/02/98).