Not easily handled, led, taught, or controlled.
Example:
The army's corruption was known to be the country's intractable problem, and all foreign aid ended up in the colonels' pockets.
Intractable simply means "untreatable," and even comes from the same root. It may describe both people and conditions. An intractable alcoholic goes back to the bottle immediately after "drying out." A cancer patient may suffer intractable pain that doctors are unable to treat. Homelessness is now regarded by many as an intractable problem -- though it hardly existed twenty years ago.