It's an interesting question, because you can look at it from both angles and be correct.

Ferris certainly lies to people, deceives them, and manipulates everyone around him (even his own family) to do his bidding. He has the whole community, if not the whole city, dancing to his tune (sort of literally, too).

On the other hand, when you look at Cameron, the damaged soul - it's like a dog in 'Dog Whisperer', that's 'frozen'. If no one kicked him a bit, he would never move, and consequently, never evolve, and in the end, never live.

It's only thanks to Ferris that Cameron is moving. Without him, Cameron would be absolutely still, not progressing at all, and maybe regressing.

Think about it; compare a day without Ferris to what we are shown. Cameron would just lie there in his bed, maybe napping, and doing absolutely nothing, being a hypochondriac. There's nothing wrong with Cameron physically, and Ferris knows this. Cameron's 'illness' is his defence mechanism, his 'happy cave', his escape from reality, his retreat from life into victimhood, where he can falsely feel safe.

And thus become even more afraid.

Every day Cameron spends in his bed, he becomes more afraid to go out.

Only when there's an unstoppable, annoying force to snap him out of it and kick him out of bed, can he move forward and away from this self-created prison, and progress and evolve as a human being.

Thanks to Ferris, Cameron's brain is moving again, it's progressing. Instead of retreating deeper and deeper into his fears, he is facing the fears, he learns how to deal with life, things and his scary father. Maybe his father will be so startled by Cameron's sudden, uncharacteristic confidence that he forgets to be angry. Maybe that's what he was trying to do all the time, being so angry all the time, and being frustrated by his neurotic wife, whose safe mechanism is 'cleanliness'. Only when everything is absolutely, perfectly clean, can she feel like world makes sense.

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So basically, you could almost say that this movie is about mentally ill or at least psychologically and emotionally troubled and/or traumatized, or at least problematic people.

Ferris is a psychopath (or sociopath), his sister has irrational anger issues, her new boyfriend (Charlie Sheen's character) is a drug addict, their parents are work-a-holics and clueless bad parents that do not enforce any kind of discipline, the principal is a nutty stalker and an ego-maniac that revels in 'winning against a student', the secretary is a glue-sniffing basket case, the restaurant Maitre D' is a snobby and pretentious tosser, and the garage attendants are low-life thieves.

Cameron is full of phobias, Sloane undresses in front of 'comatose people' for fun (or to tease them?), all the teachers are clearly suffering from depression and thinking about suicide (no passion for their job), and Cameron's parents - the father is trying to fill the void inside by clinging into materialistic trappings, and the mother tries to keep her soul clean by keeping their house unrealistically clean.

Cameron is the only one that healed through the journey that Ferris put him through. Ferris, in a way, was like Tyler Durden, in that he took Cameron kicking and screaming, and the end result is that Cameron is stronger, and able to handle the most difficult situations now.

Before, he couldn't handle 'anything' - now he found inner strength from the accident that forced him to process his fears and face them fully. Regardless of what his father actually does to him, he is now a stronger, better human being, and more ready for life. Who knows, maybe his father will respect him now that he has a spine, and he doesn't run away from his problems anymore.

Maybe his father will also reach a deep realization - what's the point of punishing the son, that wouldn't bring his Ferrari back - but this is a great opportunity to let go of the burden of the Ferrari and find pride and joy from something real, like his son, his family, or confronting his own fears (which, in turn, Cameron forced him to do - the fear of losing his 'pride and joy', for example. So now it's lost - but the father is still alive, nothing important died after all - so there was no reason to fear losing the Ferrari in the end).

Maybe his father will also now be forced to ask himself the question, "Do I really need a Ferrari?"

Of course fixing the garage and if he chooses to fix the Ferrari, etc. will cost a lot - but they can certainly afford it (hey, anyone with a Ferrari should be able to afford it easily).

In the end, this seemingly shocking incident might actually work as a catalyst to bring the family closer. Maybe amidst trying to punish his son, Cameron will speak some words of wisdom through the pain, and the father will realize that his son is surely more precious than some stupid car, no matter how Ferrari.

That's at least how I see it.

From my viewpoint, Ferris can certainly be a psychopath or sociopath, but in the end, that doesn't matter - the end result is the only thing that matters.

Life can often use sociopaths and whatever else that is available, that might on the surface look terrifying or negative, to bring us spiritual cultivation and inner strength. In the end, we're stronger because of the hardships we've had to endure.

Without that particular sociopath, Cameron - and maybe his whole family - would be way worse off. Who knows, this 'accident' may be the very thing that starts a chain reaction that spreads throughout their whole community, letting everyone face their fears and let go of their hang-ups and psychological problems, and move forward, and that way, truly live.

It may be the best thing that ever happened to large groups of people.

In a way, there's an 'invisible character' in this movie, and that character is 'life', and it appears are the framework of 'circumstances' that shape, mold, teach and forge the individuals in this story. The greedy and selfish gits get what they deserve, but even the 'bad people' end up being helpful, whether they planned it, or not. Funnily enough, even Jeanie gets to face her fears, and becomes stronger for it - and in the end, decides to be merciful and help Ferris.

It's almost ingenious, that Ferris, the sociopath that can make everyone else dance to his tune, ends up being at the mercy of the one individual that sees through him and knows his true self - and by 'life' positioning him in that very position, brings out the good in Jeanie, and even she can let go of her anger problem.

So in the end, Ferris helped her to heal from her psychological-emotional problems, too!

And of course Rooney also learns a lesson, and will probably never be as ego-maniacal and crazy again. He did basically enter a private residence without permission, which is against the law, but 'life' was merciful - instead of spending years in jail, he just has to spend half an hour in a school bus.

So, all's well that ends well. Regardless of whether Ferris is this or that, at least we can see 'life' used even Ferris to help others, and because of, or thanks to Ferris, many people were helped move forward in life, and were able to face their fears and let go of their hang-ups.

Now that's what I call a day off.