Normal

Here comes a definition of normal by Roberto Assagioli.
(Source: Symbols of the Supernormal, Part 1. , Conference of Dr. Roberto Assagioli in 1957. Translated by Jan Kuniholm and Francesco Viglienghi. Original Title: Simboli del Supernormale I)

Generally, the average man is considered normal, obedient to the social standards of the environment in which he lives: in other words, the “conformist”. Well, this normality is something very insufficient, very unsatisfactory. Above all, it has the serious defect of being a static and exclusive conception. The standard of normalità, i.e. of conformism — of “normality”, as they say in America, of being “adjusted” — of being settled, in tune with the environment, is in fact synonymous with mediocrity. It excludes, and more or less condemns, all that is outside the norm with a more or less explicit assumption that it is  ab-normal or subnormal, while ignoring the fact that many so-called apparent anomalies are actually signs, attempts or even sensations of a supernormality.

As a heartening sign, there is fortunately a reaction among the best thinkers and scholars against this petty and short-sighted exclusivism of so-called normality. And I will mention two very authoritative and decisive voices. One is of the scientist Jung, a well-known psychologist and psychiatrist: “To be ‘normal’ is a splendid ideal for the unsuccessful, for all those who have not yet found an adaptation. But for people who have far more ability than the average, for whom it was never hard to gain successes and to accomplish their share of the world’s work — for them restriction to the normal signifies the bed of Procrustes, unbearable boredom, infernal sterility and hopelessness”.[1] And another scholar, Prof. Cattegno, professor of mathematics at the University of London, and also a psychologist, has gone even further: he in fact considers the average ordinary man as a being actually pre-human, and reserves the word “Man”, with a capital M, only for those who have transcended the ordinary or common stage, and who are precisely, compared to this, supernormal.

In other times this fact was more recognized, and the cult of superior beings was the norm. The geniuses, the sages, the saints, the heroes and the initiates were recognized as the vanguards, the representatives of true humanity, the great promise of what every human being could become. This is indicated in Jesus’ great affirmation, “be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect,” and “greater things than I have done, you will also do.” These Great Beings, far from despising common humanity, have tried to arouse and awaken in it the urge and the yearning to transcend its normality or mediocrity, and to develop the possibilities latent in it; among which — I tell you now — there are also a range of parapsychological faculties and powers. …

Let us now move on to the second group of symbols and symbolic indications, that of introversion. This introversion is an absolutely urgent necessity for modern man, and not only to become supernormal; but also not to become abnormal, not to become psychologically ill. In fact, our present civilization is so exclusively, and exasperatingly extroverted that as a result man gets caught up in such a frenzied jumble of activism that he often has no purpose. This becomes an end in itself, as it does for those who race cars at dangerous speeds without having any goal . . .  This is a perfect symbol of modern man.

The normal man can be said to be psychologically and spiritually outside of himself. The expression “beside himself” — once used for the mentally ill — is now actually a perfect representation of modern man. Modern man lives everywhere — perhaps in the future even in interplanetary spaces — except within himself. Therefore, not only for supernormal achievements, but also just to preserve his normal health and balance, it is necessary even here not to abolish the external life, but to counterbalance and balance it with a growing internal life. Come back into ourselves!

Another scandalous expression for the normal man — but which is very true — is that “the normal man is eccentric”, in the sense that he is outside his center […] he is centered in the world, making money, and having external success. But from the psycho-spiritual point of view he is ec-centric; that is, off-center, as expressed with a beautiful French expression (désaxé), off his axis. Therefore, his task is one of internalization and re-entry into himself, renouncing the multiple evasions and multiple escapes from himself, which have been well indicated by modern scholars.

It is a matter of knowing what has recently been called “inner space” in America, of recognizing that there is not only outer space, but also inner space.  There are not only outer worlds, but also inner worlds — in the plural. It is the task and duty of a  human being worthy of the name to know, explore, and conquer them. This, I repeat, is no longer simply an aspiration for spiritualists, mystics and people beyond so-called reality — which in fact, as understood by the average man, is actually very illusory — but rather there is a a need for balance and health. Moreover, a man who was a great artist — and not only of literature, but also more generally of the art of living — a man who knew how to live very well […] on the outside, who knew how to play the part of the normal man when he wanted to, Wolfgang Goethe, said the following: “When we have played our part on the inside, the outside will unfold automatically.”

This is a very deep and very wise saying. Because man, the good man who knows so many things and has so many material powers that he uses so well, does not realize that everything he does on the outside actually comes from his inner states: passions, desires, instincts, impulses, programs and plans. All this is psychological activity; that is, internal.

Every external action is nothing but the result of internal motives: and therefore it would be worthwhile to analyze them, to know them and to discern them a little better, these motives. But the interior life provides much more than equilibrium and human wisdom: it also gives supernormal results. To go back into ourselves, to rediscover the center of ourselves, our true being, that which is found in the most intimate part of us — this is both a revelation and an empowerment. It is what Jesus called the pearl of great price, that whoever finds it and recognizes its value, buys it by selling everything else. So it is a supernormal achievement.

[1] C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, New York, Harcourt Brace, 1933. Rather than translate this quotation from Assagioli’s Italian text we have directly inserted the version published in English — Tr.