THAT IS NOT NORMAL.
Who decided?
The School Of Abnormal
This is our normal.
If it looks abnormal to you, we are comfortable with that.
Part of Whole System Neuro Endocrinology
Enter the schoolA School of Questions
A school should make room for questions. So should an expert, a scientist, a parent, a pupil, a professional and an institution. Here, the questions can travel in every direction.
We study people and the systems around them. We listen to the people whose experiences have often been explained by somebody else. We explore the biology of action and inhibition without reducing a human life to one receptor, one diagnosis or one theory.
And we meet people who love being who they are.
Conversations
People are my rockpools.
We meet people who think, make, investigate, build, challenge, notice and experience the world in ways worth discovering. A conversation can begin with a scientist, an artist, a teacher, a founder, a child-at-heart or someone who has never appeared on a magazine cover.
Explore conversations →The Biology of Difference
No standard spine. No standard story.
Even within a single neuron, dendritic spines show remarkable variation in shape, size and synaptic properties. Nervous systems also rely on organised excitation, inhibition and modulation to produce coordinated activity.
Explore the biology →Investigations
A rule should be able to explain itself.
Who created it? What was it designed to achieve? What evidence supports it? Who can question it? What happens when it fails the people expected to follow it?
How we investigate →Learning Differently
Doing things differently, openly and on purpose.
How we teach WSNE
Observation comes before explanation.
Whole System Neuro-Endocrinology is taught from the person outward and from the cell upward. A learner may begin with a drawn glial cell, a rockpool, a photograph, a hormone, or a question from their own life.
How we teach →How we create interviews
Curiosity about the person leads.
Through The Sessions a person shapes the conversation, checks their words before publication and keeps ownership of their story. We ask how they experience their normal, and what others have called abnormal about it.
Read the conversations →How we hold institutions to account
A rule should explain itself.
We ask what is removed when an institution produces normal: room to wonder, questions, interests, directions. Where pressure stops a person from asking or choosing, responsibility stays with whoever applied it.
How accountability works →An Open Invitation
Our Normal
Our normal can look abnormal to others. We get to be different, curious and imaginative.
Living people whose normal looks abnormal to others, and who are glad to be different. They talk about how they learn, imagine and stay curious.
This series is being developed through conversations, writing, portraits and questions. No requirement to be exceptional. No requirement to turn difference into a superpower. Enjoying who you are is enough to begin.
Discover the collection →Selected Words
The people who create the rules should be willing to answer questions about the rules.
Being different does not require an explanation before it can be enjoyed.
If a framework can judge a person, that person should be able to question the framework.
The person being observed has questions too.
Editorial note: These are original statements by The School of Abnormal, not attributed quotations from interviewees.
Research & Education
Different subjects. Connected questions.
Permission Architecture, Whole System Neuro-Endocrinology, Nature of Neurons, The Theory That Never Asked, Understanding Burnout and our other projects approach human experience from different directions.
Some begin with biology. Some begin with personal accounts. Some begin with the history of an idea. Some begin by asking why something is permitted, inhibited, hidden or judged.
They meet here because each project is open to questioning, including questions that challenge the original idea.
Explore research and projects →Collections
Series and Collections
Our Normal
Living people whose normal looks abnormal to others, and who are glad to be different. They talk about how they learn, imagine and stay curious.
Biology of Difference
From dendritic spines to whole biological systems.
Who Decided?
Questions for the people and systems that make the rules.
Permission & Inhibition
The actions we take, the actions we cannot take, and the options that feel available.
The People We Ask
Conversations that begin with curiosity rather than a ready-made category.
You have questions. So do we.
Bring your curiosity, your work, your experience, your criticism, and the questions other people may have been unwilling to hear. The School of Abnormal is being built as a place to learn from those questions.
Take part →Newsletter
New conversations. New questions.
The School of Abnormal will share newly published conversations, essays, science education, research developments and selected investigations.
Learn more