Eccentricity is not listed as a mental disorder in psychiatric manuals.

The eccentric’s brain usually functions well, just in a peculiar way.

Distress and social dysfunction, not just odd behavior, define true psychiatric disorders.

Most of us are inveterate people labelers. Introduce us to a new person, and the labeling commences: What category—niche—best describes them? Are they extroverted? Are they easy conversationalists and relaxation-inducing? Or do they come across as overly reserved, laconic, inept practitioners of the art of small talk? And if their general “vibe” is an especially negative one, what psychiatric diagnoses might best fit them?

Of course, in this era of relaxed social and cultural expectations, one certainly has to be cautious about negatively labeling anyone. Psychiatrists and psychologists aren’t exempted from this caution. In fact, as a general rule, the more familiar one is with the fine points of the DSM, the more likely and frequent the tendency to describe people in psychiatric terms.

One popular tack is to attach a mental health label to the most extreme personalities and accept all lesser personality variations as “normal.” Although this is one option, it makes it that much harder to answer a key question: At what point does a behavioral peculiarity become a psychiatric disorder?

Take Joshua Abraham Norton, who appointed himself emperor of the United States by an edict he published in the San Francisco Bulletin on September 17, 1859. Along with disbanding both Democratic and Republican parties, Norton printed his own currency, which came to be accepted in many shops and restaurants in San Francisco. For over 20 years he patrolled the city sidewalks in the interest of seeing to it that they remained unobstructed. In the........

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