The normal and the pathological
 

Mol 121, in footnote: "A lot has been written about the concept of 'disease' [...] the crucial text to go into is Georges Canguilhem's The Normal and the Pathological ([1943] 1966). It tells about nineteenth-century medical research in which the difference between normal and pathological was taken to be quantitative."
 
121-2: "But, or so Canguilhem argues [...] merely quantitative differences in function may be compatible with a good life. Being able to run faster than everyone else, for instance, is deviant, but not a disease. If we only want to [use 'pathological' to] term those conditions that are bothersome and plague a person [...] then we must recognize that the difference between normal and pathological is of a qualitative kind"
 
127: "The problems one is faced with are not conditions of the body. They pertain to one's body, but they are situated elsewhere: in one's life."

> from Annemarie Mol's The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice (2002)

> tagged with #body, #disease, #to_read

> created May 24, 2025 at 12:52:05 PM


> part of unfinished everything


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unfinished everything is an original work / ongoing project (1997-present) by jeremy p. bushnell

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