Am I Normal? Card Game | The School of Life

graceacupuncture - 14/07/2022 - STRATEGY - 550 Views

Am I Normal? Card Game

A set of 52 cards to find out just how weird (or not) you might be.

No matter how much we celebrate individualism and praise the unique, we are, at heart, deeply collective creatures committed to the idea of ‘being normal’. And yet almost all of us feel, in private, that we're really quite odd, by which we mean: not like anyone else we know. But our picture of what is normal is in fact - very often - way out of line with what is actually true and widespread. Many thoughts, fears and desires that we might assume to be uniquely and disconcertingly strange - and that make us feel painfully ashamed - are in fact completely average.

These cards are a tool of self-assessment and reassurance. They ask us to compare ourselves with a range of statements, many of them dark, in order to find out just how weird (or not) we and our loved ones really are. They encourage us not to be ashamed of our uncomfortable thoughts and recognise the sheer normality of our madness, waywardness and alarm.

Read an extract of the cards >>

Example Cards:

I have some very unhygienic, noxious habits.

I can’t bear to hear that someone loves their job.

I often have no reaction at all to supposedly ‘great’ works of art.

I’m far meaner than everyone thinks.

Am I Normal? Card Game | The School of Life

I’m anxious pretty much all the time.

I’m an enormous bullshitter.

The cards use a simple graphic pattern of diagonals, with one small aberration, on one side; and, on the other, a simple modernist typography to help you contemplate your essential normality.

How to Use The Cards:

You might...

Keep these cards close to hand for moments when you fear the awkwardness of a social situation

As in a therapy session, use them to reflect about a lurking fear or sense of shame.

Give the cards to a friend who is suffering from an unspoken anxiety that they find hard to articulate.

More Tools for Self-Assessment

Class: How to Develop Self-Knowledge - Our regular class can equip you with tools to help clarify vague emotions and thoughts and provide a newly clarified sense of the distinctive nature of your personality; what you need to be cautious around, and what your priorities might be.

Bag: No One is Normal - A canvas tote bag from The School of Life.

Article - On Being Very Normal - An article from our blog, The Book of Life.

52 game cards | 89mm x 126mm | Instruction card included