Eccentricity and intolerance: a systemic critique

Abstract

Society has many methods of intervention if a person who is behaving in a self-destructive, eccentric, or insane manner spontaneously asks for help. When, however this person is not asking for help, the dominant culture has a problem to manage. In order to achieve the result of integrating the deviant person back into the culture, some deem it necessary to coerce them into some form of rehabilitation program. This paper describes alternative ways to work successfully with human beings who experience apparently intransigent emotional or behavioral difficulties in living.