Abstract

An unemployed black man entered a Rolls Royce showroom, chose the automobile he desired, and handed the salesman his life savings of two hundred dollars. “I want that one.” When refused the keys, the man became vociferous and demanding. The police were called. He was taken to a nearby hospital and diagnosed as schizophrenic. This man assumed that he deserved a Rolls Royce as much as anyone else, and protested loudly when denied what he felt he deserved. In other words, his “madness" resided in his unwillingness to accept the assumptions underlying the distribution of privileges and possessions in this society.