In the ‘intransigent line the inmate flatly refuses to cooperate with the staff and exhibits sustained hostility towards the institution.

The staff often makes strident efforts to break this line of resistance. In military barracks the inmate may be locked in the stockade, in prisons he may be placed in solitary confinement, in mental hospitals he may be isolated from other patients, given electric shock treatment or even a lobotomy. The strong reprisals against the intransigent line often mean that it is a short-lived adaptation.