diff --git a/compiler/rustc_session/src/options.rs b/compiler/rustc_session/src/options.rs
index b438be0696a..66c709b4080 100644
--- a/compiler/rustc_session/src/options.rs
+++ b/compiler/rustc_session/src/options.rs
@@ -996,6 +996,8 @@ options! {DebuggingOptions, DebuggingSetter, basic_debugging_options,
         "run LLVM in non-parallel mode (while keeping codegen-units and ThinLTO)"),
     no_profiler_runtime: bool = (false, parse_no_flag, [TRACKED],
         "prevent automatic injection of the profiler_builtins crate"),
+    normalize_docs: bool = (false, parse_bool, [TRACKED],
+        "normalize associated items in rustdoc when generating documentation"),
     osx_rpath_install_name: bool = (false, parse_bool, [TRACKED],
         "pass `-install_name @rpath/...` to the macOS linker (default: no)"),
     panic_abort_tests: bool = (false, parse_bool, [TRACKED],
diff --git a/src/bootstrap/builder.rs b/src/bootstrap/builder.rs
index 9336d7165ee..b5bbb6372ee 100644
--- a/src/bootstrap/builder.rs
+++ b/src/bootstrap/builder.rs
@@ -731,6 +731,7 @@ impl<'a> Builder<'a> {
             .env("CFG_RELEASE_CHANNEL", &self.config.channel)
             .env("RUSTDOC_REAL", self.rustdoc(compiler))
             .env("RUSTC_BOOTSTRAP", "1")
+            .arg("-Znormalize_docs")
             .arg("-Winvalid_codeblock_attributes");
         if self.config.deny_warnings {
             cmd.arg("-Dwarnings");
diff --git a/src/bootstrap/doc.rs b/src/bootstrap/doc.rs
index bb0555c227d..a296a1fe3f4 100644
--- a/src/bootstrap/doc.rs
+++ b/src/bootstrap/doc.rs
@@ -527,6 +527,7 @@ impl Step for Rustc {
         cargo.rustdocflag("--document-private-items");
         cargo.rustdocflag("--enable-index-page");
         cargo.rustdocflag("-Zunstable-options");
+        cargo.rustdocflag("-Znormalize-docs");
         compile::rustc_cargo(builder, &mut cargo, target);
 
         // Only include compiler crates, no dependencies of those, such as `libc`.
diff --git a/src/librustdoc/clean/mod.rs b/src/librustdoc/clean/mod.rs
index 9e8ce452924..8431f8d95f5 100644
--- a/src/librustdoc/clean/mod.rs
+++ b/src/librustdoc/clean/mod.rs
@@ -1515,9 +1515,12 @@ impl Clean<Type> for hir::Ty<'_> {
 }
 
 /// Returns `None` if the type could not be normalized
-#[allow(unreachable_code, unused_variables)]
 fn normalize(cx: &DocContext<'tcx>, ty: Ty<'_>) -> Option<Ty<'tcx>> {
-    return None; // HACK: low-churn fix for #79459 while we wait for a trait normalization fix
+    // HACK: low-churn fix for #79459 while we wait for a trait normalization fix
+    if !cx.tcx.sess.opts.debugging_opts.normalize_docs {
+        return None;
+    }
+
     use crate::rustc_trait_selection::infer::TyCtxtInferExt;
     use crate::rustc_trait_selection::traits::query::normalize::AtExt;
     use rustc_middle::traits::ObligationCause;
diff --git a/src/test/rustdoc/normalize-assoc-item.rs b/src/test/rustdoc/normalize-assoc-item.rs
index 70b3c66fd2b..ad1a868ee32 100644
--- a/src/test/rustdoc/normalize-assoc-item.rs
+++ b/src/test/rustdoc/normalize-assoc-item.rs
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 // ignore-tidy-linelength
 // aux-build:normalize-assoc-item.rs
 // build-aux-docs
-// ignore-test
+// compile-flags:-Znormalize-docs
 
 pub trait Trait {
     type X;