The distorting notions of the deficit and different Afro-American subculture have led white psychologists and guidance counselors to diagnose incorrectly behavior aberrations in Black children. A case study of a Black child who was hastily diagnosed and institutionalized as brain damaged, retarded, and psychotic illustrates this point. A bicultural model, rather than the deficit oversimplified model, is a preferable conceptual framework. Educators and health specialists must not only recognize the legitimacy and creativity of ethnic subcultures, but also must recognize that Afro-Americans are already more conversant with and competent in the main stream culture than most non-Black Americans would realize. The bicultural conception calls attention to a kind of psychocultural adequacy in the Black community. Out of this could perhaps come the beginnings of a more realistic and humane basis for service institutions changing to provide for Afro-American needs and interests. (KG)