Origin of Norms in Clinical Psychology Textbooks

Norms are the basis of understanding, judgments, and guidance of human actions in individual and social levels. Iran’s scientific dependency to the West and the implicational transmission of inconsistent norms requires experts and students to focus on the intellectual origin of the norms presented in translated textbooks, and on the pathology of the consequences of this transmission, too. In this regard, a more serious reflection is necessary also in scientific context in order to maintain the scientific, cultural, and social identity of the Iranian academic society. The present article aims to study this important issue in clinical psychology. Accordingly, translated textbooks and reference books of clinical psychology were studied with a focus on norm-oriented content analysis. This study focused on: a) the origin of the norms; and b) the classification of them. Based on the results of this analysis, a model of the dominant norms in psychology was presented. The criteria of abnormality in this model are based on two types of norms, and have been rooted in the intellectual and philosophical trends of two western ideologies. The final section of the article briefly describes, explains, and analyses the consequences that the covert norms of specialized clinical psychology textbooks had on the western societies themselves. Therefore, the most important disadvantages of the western modern era were briefly introduced. Western thinkers believe that these disadvantages are the result of those norms that underpin the concept of psychological normality and abnormality. The article concludes with several suggestions for promoting the culture of criticism in the framework of psychology textbooks.