The Management of Normality

Maintaining normality is hard work. It takes time, effort, and foresight. However, because it is romantic, it is also taken for granted – not least by social scientists.

In a series of dazzling case studies, the author shows in his book The Management of Normality (first published in 1990, now reissued with a new preface) how normality is constructed and imposed in our society. The work explores the social order of a cancer ward, the power and authority of the medical regime, the interview situation in psychotherapy, the politics of agoraphobia, the domestic management of intimacy, jealously as a class phenomenon, and the war survivors’ syndrome as a social problem. The result is one of the most penetrating and stimulating books on the organization of social life to be published at the time.