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In order to consider the problems of the psycho-analytic situation in which the 'normal' candidate becomes involved, it is necessary to have in mind a conception of mental health. Only when we know what our goal is, can we consider the technical problems confronting the training analyst. We assume that it is not simply a question of freedom from symptoms or of 'social' adjustment. It is understood that we are concerned with normality from the standpoint of psycho-analysis.
Ernest Jones approached the question in an essay which was originally intended for general readers.3 He referred to two main groups of definitions of normality: (a) those depending on the criterion of happiness and (b) those depending upon adaptation to (psychological) reality. The latter 'does not necessarily imply the acceptance of environmental standards, but it does imply a sensitive perception of them and a recognition of their social significance'. This depends on a 'feeling relationship' with other human beings, which 'is to be estimated by the internal freedom of such feeling' as distinguished from surface attitudes of conciliation or self-assertion.
Midway between the concept of happiness and the concept of reality adaptation Jones introduced the concept of 'efficiency'. This concept depends on a number of factors: normality cannot tolerate a state of excessive influence by others; nor can it dispense with sensitiveness to others; it is dependent on what Jones calls 'gusto'; it is not concerned solely with external success, but it does require the fullest use of a given individual's powers and talents. The one is born of confidence, the other of fear.
Against this background Jones came to the conclusion that the state of balance in relatively stable persons can be 'unsuspectedly precarious' and that this applies to 'apparently normal candidates' in whom 'one is often astonished to observe how a comparatively good functioning of the personality can exist with an extensive neurosis