CAN A SOCIETY BE SICK?-THE
PATHOLOGY OF NORMALCY'
To speak of a whole society as lacking in mental health implies a
controversial assumption contrary to the position of sociological
relativism held by most social scientists today. They postulate that
each society is normal inasmuch as it functions, and that path-
ology can be defined only in terms of the individual's lack of
adjustment to the ways of life in his society.
To speak of a "sane society" implies a premise different from
sociological relativism. It makes sense only if we assume that
there can be a society which is not sane, and this assumption, in
turn, implies that there are universal criteria for mental health
which are valid for the human race as such, and according to
which the state of health of each society can be judged. This
position of normative humanism is based on a few fundamental
premises.
In this chapter I have drawn on my paper, "Individual and Social Origins o