[The approach to "normality". Study of patients pronounced "normal" consulting the Lausanne university psychiatric polyclinic 1957 to 1979].

The author studied the variation of the use of the diagnostic item "without apparent psychic symptoms" by the physicians of the University Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic in Lausanne between 1957 and 1979. The results showed a rise and then a fall of the use of this diagnostic item; the variation is related more to institutional habits and opportunity than to the concept of "normality". The rise can be explained by diverse circumstances amplifying the opportunity to use this item, while the fall is in relation to a change in habits of formulation and codification. It is fortunate that consulting psychiatrists leave a place for the appreciation of apparent normality. The explicit or implicit formulation of this appreciation as well as the frequency of its use is of little importance, as they are function of arbitrarily defined habits or opportunities.