As the psychiatric anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker writes in his titular book, Nobody’s Normal, our current definition of mental health is tied to the state and employers’ desire for productive, inoffensive conformity.[6] Emotions that are too large, passions that are too childish and not profitable, habits that are too repetitive, and bodies and minds that require daily assistance all challenge this incredibly narrow definition of health. It is only by expanding our definition of what is acceptable human behavior and working to meet other people’s manifold needs that we can move forward.
