Personality Disorder

CLARIFICATION This post is a critique of psychiatry's spurious personality disorder diagnoses. It is neither a defense, nor a condemnation, of Mr. Trump. In my view, it is right and proper that we the people should comment freely on, and criticize, our political leaders, as we deem appropriate. But assigning spurious psychiatric labels is problematic for two reasons. Firstly, it adds nothing useful to the discussion. Secondly, it affords unwarranted validity and reliability to what are nothing more than loose collections of inherently vague thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, with no explanatory significance. ...

A regular reader has sent me a link to an article in Mail Online called “British scientist caught smuggling drugs ‘for Miss Bikini World’ blames it on his ‘gullibility disorder.’” Apparently Paul Frampton, an eminent British physicist currently working at the University of North Carolina, established a relationship on an online dating site with a person whom he says he believed was Miss Bikini World 2007. He flew to La Paz, Bolivia, to meet her. Of course she wasn’t there, but a nice gentleman gave him “her” suitcase and asked if he’d be kind enough to take it to Buenos Aires. ...

A few days ago it was reported in the media that the defense lawyers representing Jerry Sandusky, the football coach accused of sexually molesting young boys, plan to present evidence that he has histrionic personality disorder, and to argue that this should be accepted as a mitigating factor. The logic here is sound. Most jurisdictions accept the presence of a bona fide illness as a mitigating factor – sometimes to the point of total exculpation. Consider the case of a middle-aged man who has a heart attack while driving a car. He passes out and the car, out of control, kills someone. In cases like this the driver frequently isn’t even charged. ...