Society seeks to distance itself from its deviants, either physically (as by segregating those with mental illness or AIDS), or by categorizing them (‘hypertensives’, ‘depressives’, ‘hooligans’), or by denying responsibility for their problems (such as obesity, poverty-related illness, alcoholism, or violence). Yet in truth the deviants are simply the tail of the population's own distribution; they belong to each other and society is one, whether it likes it or not. This chapter explains the interrelations between the population and its deviants, and the health implications for the deviants...

Society seeks to distance itself from its deviants, either physically (as by segregating those with mental illness or AIDS), or by categorizing them (‘hypertensives’, ‘depressives’, ‘hooligans’), or by denying responsibility for their problems (such as obesity, poverty-related illness, alcoholism, or violence). Yet in truth the deviants are simply the tail of the population's own distribution; they belong to each other and society is one, whether it likes it or not. This chapter explains the interrelations between the population and its deviants, and the health implications for the deviants of changes in the population. It then considers the health implications of such changes for the population as a whole.