Notes on the History of Normality – Reflections on the Work of Quetelet and Galton

Abstract

This article investigates the historical background of our present understanding of normality and the hegemony of the empirical norm. This is an understanding that is closely linked to the development of eugenics, the rank ordering of human beings, the emergence of rehabilitation and the social construction of statistics within the social sciences. The article describes how the ideas of the Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet and his concept of the “average man”, together the work of the Victorian polymath Francis Galton, who coined the term eugenics, have had lasting influence on how we today conceive the term normality. In the article brief historical glimpses into the birth of rehabilitation and the eugenic practices, which culminated with the killing of thousands of disabled people during the Nazi occupation of Europe are presented. Towards the end of the article it is questioned whether our present knowledge about inheritance and the genetic makeup of human beings can support the understandings leading to the concepts of normal and normality.

Notes

1. See Mackenzie (1981).

2. A term coined by the biologist William Bateson (1861–1926).