Personality disorder service user help and support from Emergence

There is no widespread agreement about what causes personality disorder. There are a number of different theories and debate and research continues.  These different theories broadly reflect different ways of understanding human distress. Some people do not think it is helpful to talk about causes because this is based on the controversial notion that PD exists as a condition or disease.

Personality disorders (PD) are extremely controversial diagnoses, provoking heated debate among people with personal experience of these diagnoses, mental health staff, researchers and policy makers. Controversy centres on the three following points:

• Do personality disorders actually exist as objective ‘disorders’?
• Are these diagnoses a useful way of understanding distress and coping strategies?
• What are the implications of these diagnoses for broader political questions about inequality, abuse and other social problems?