Koeslag J H
Department of Medical Physiology and Biochemistry, University of Stellenbosch, Parowvallei, CP.
S Afr Med J. 1993 Jan;83(1):47-50.
The distinction between normality and abnormality forms the basis of medical practice. However, these words appear to have no more precise meanings in medicine than they do in conversational English. At least five contradictory definitions are described in the literature, and are in simultaneous use in everyday practice. The apparently arbitrary manner in which these definitions are chosen to evaluate different phenomena effectively means that medicine operates without a definition: certain phenomena are normal (by decree, as it were), and others are not. Actions based on such an arbitrary system are, of necessity, haphazard. The adoption of a precise, rigorously acultural definition of normality would unquestionably admit medicine to full membership of the family of objective sciences.
正常与异常的区分构成了医学实践的基础。然而，这些词汇在医学中的含义似乎并不比在日常英语中更精确。文献中至少描述了五种相互矛盾的定义，且在日常实践中同时使用。选择这些定义来评估不同现象的方式明显具有随意性，这实际上意味着医学在没有定义的情况下运作：某些现象是正常的（可以说是凭规定），而其他现象则不是。基于这样一个随意系统的行动必然是杂乱无章的。采用一个精确、严格且不受文化影响的正常定义无疑会使医学完全成为客观科学大家庭的一员。
