I have a friend who I've known since first grade. He would never just "obey orders"...he would always try to find out why he was being asked to do something and if the request seemed illegitimate he would refuse, sometimes in creative ways, to honor it. He was diagnosed with ADHD and labeled a "problem child".

As we grew older and his ethics and moral compass developed he would supply arguments to back up his actions - he would not rebel for rebellion's sake but because he truly believed his actions were reasonable and justified. In high school these took the form of successfully defying the school's no-hats-allowed policy and under the auspices of a Frank Zappa loving art teacher forming The Anarchist's Club (the tongue-in-cheek logo was a medieval spiked club weapon emblazoned with a circle-A symbol).

The Anarchist's Club biggest action was a boycott of a mandatory pep rally for the school's basketball team (we offered to study in the library instead) which earned its 13 or so members a suspension with readmission after a written apology and meeting with our parents. After three days only me, my friend and one other student remained defiant. (Our parents were supportive of our "cause".) We were readmitted after my friend and I went to the town's newspaper and told them our story and a subsequent meeting with the school board which, to our surprise, agreed the offer to study in lieu of attending the rally was reasonable and overruled the principal's authority.

After high school we both moved to the west coast to attend college and drifted apart. In the "real world", despite much rhetorical talk of freedom and liberty from all corners, obedience and conformity to an often rigid status quo are expected if one wants to be accepted by, and benefit from, mainstream society. There are exceptions, like entrepreneurship to some extent, and limited room to negotiate but generally defying the authority of supervisors, managers, professors, the law of the land and any number of "superior" people and institutions is met with the crack of a whip rather than an offer of dialog and compromise.

Most of us suppress our anti-authoritarian instincts and fall in line with the established order. The more we have to lose, the more we opt for security and predictability over principles and conscience. My friend says he cannot do this. Talking a decade after high school he says he was born without the "conformity gene" and that he can't will himself to do something he feels is unjust or infringes unreasonably on his liberty. He can't, for example, obey a micro-managing boss if his method of working is more productive than the bosses way. If the boss is truly concerned about productivity and the company's bottom line he or she will not force employees to do things one way and one way only. Every person has methods that work for them, but may not work for others, and a boss who does not respect this is, according to my friend, an ego-tripping asshole or a mindless drone in thrall to "management theory".

My friend argues that his anti-authoritarian nature has cost him many jobs and opportunities and has made climbing the middle-class career ladder all but impossible. He makes money by buying and selling things on Craigslist and E-bay, freelance graphic design jobs and the marijuana reselling industry. He claims to have no interest in a stable career, home ownership and a family. More than that, he says his disposition makes it impossible for him to submit to arbitrary authority and to shelve his reservations for the sake of a career. If I had just met him I might be tempted to call bullshit and think he's rationalizing his failure after the fact but I've known this guy almost my entire life and his behavior has been consistent since first grade.

He has been diagnosed with adult ADHD, an anxiety disorder, depression and other mood disorders. (The DSM even provides a handy "unspecified disorder" category.) One anecdotal tale proves nothing and there is a possible chicken/egg problem here but based on my friend's and, to a lesser extent, my own and other people's experiences I am convinced there are good reasons for the APA or similar group to do an in-depth, independent study investigating the links between mental illness diagnoses and anti-authoritarian personality traits. Given what is at stake, I doubt that will happen any time soon.