Eccentricity

ECCENTRICITY, peculiarities of behavior by virtue of which a personality stands out from the circle of ordinary people and thereby attracts special attention. E. can manifest itself in the manner of holding oneself, in posture, gestures, costume, and hairstyle, in the form of speech, thinking, way of life, interests, etc. The concept of E. must be considered extremely conditional, since it is applied depending on the views prevailing in the social environment surrounding the personality: eccentric is usually called everything that in this environment is "not accepted"; therefore, for example, in a petty, low-cultured society, the manifestation of E. will be an unselfish striving for knowledge, a struggle against established orders, etc. Any great personality can be eccentric, without even noticing this, already by virtue of the inevitably inherent peculiarity. On the other hand, a person fighting against conservatism and routine may resort to eccentric manifestations as a peculiar form of protest. One of the psychological motives of E. can also be the striving at all costs to attract attention, for example, in so-called hysterical personalities. In these cases, manifestations of E. often bear the stamp of imitation and falsity. Finally, the term E. is also applied to the peculiarities and oddities characterizing the behavior of certain "schizoids" as well as of schizophrenics in the initial stages of the disease in hebephrenic form or with a mild course of the process.