Skip to main content

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
Cancel
×
×
Home
  • Home
Article
  • Cited by 77
  • Cited by
    Crossref Citations
    Crossref logo
    This article has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by CrossRef.
    Wassef, Andréanne 2017. Questionnements et malaises d’une future psychiatre. Santé mentale au Québec, Vol. 42, Issue. 1, p. 445.
    Patronek, Gary 2017. Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians and Staff. p. 431.
    Pilgrim, David 2017. Incorrigible conduct and incorrigible diagnoses: the case of personality disorder. Social Theory & Health, Vol. 15, Issue. 4, p. 388.
    Satel, Sally L. and Lilienfeld, Scott O. 2017. If Addiction is not Best Conceptualized a Brain Disease, then What Kind of Disease is it?. Neuroethics, Vol. 10, Issue. 1, p. 19.
    Roberts, Louise Meakings, Sarah Forrester, Donald Smith, Audra and Shelton, Katherine 2017. Care-leavers and their children placed for adoption. Children and Youth Services Review, Vol. 79, Issue. , p. 355.
    Ng, Lillian Lywan 2017. Thinking on writing a critical essay. Australasian Psychiatry, Vol. 25, Issue. 2, p. 187.
    Newton-Howes, Giles Mulder, Roger Ellis, Pete M. Boden, Joseph M. and Joyce, Peter 2017. Predictive Utility of Personality Disorder in Depression: Comparison of Outcomes and Taxonomic Approach. Journal of Personality Disorders, p. 1.
    Anthony, Rebecca Meakings, Sarah Doughty, Julie Ottaway, Heather Holland, Sally and Shelton, Katherine H. 2016. Factors affecting adoption in Wales: Predictors of variation in time between entry to care and adoptive placement. Children and Youth Services Review, Vol. 67, Issue. , p. 184.
    Asherson, Philip and Cormand, Bru 2016. The genetics of aggression: Where are we now?. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics, Vol. 171, Issue. 5, p. 559.
    Hadi, Fazal Dato, Serena Carpi, Francesco M. Prontera, Paolo Crucianelli, Francesca Renda, Federica Passarino, Giuseppe and Napolioni, Valerio 2015. A genetic-demographic approach reveals a gender-specific association of SLC6A3/DAT1 40 bp-VNTR with life-expectancy. Biogerontology, Vol. 16, Issue. 3, p. 365.
    Hassan, Lamiece Edge, Dawn Senior, Jane and Shaw, Jenny 2015. Accounting for Psychotropic Medication Changes in Prisons. Qualitative Health Research, Vol. 25, Issue. 7, p. 954.
    Warrender, D. 2015. Staff nurse perceptions of the impact of mentalization-based therapy skills training when working with borderline personality disorder in acute mental health: a qualitative study. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Vol. 22, Issue. 8, p. 623.
    Smith, Carl R. Katsiyannis, Antonis Losinski, Mickey and Ryan, Joseph B. 2015. Eligibility for Students With Emotional or Behavioral Disorders. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, Vol. 25, Issue. 4, p. 252.
    Troisi, Alfonso 2015. The evolutionary diagnosis of mental disorder. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, Vol. 6, Issue. 3, p. 323.
    Tyrer, Peter 2015. Personality dysfunction is the cause of recurrent non-cognitive mental disorder: A testable hypothesis. Personality and Mental Health, Vol. 9, Issue. 1, p. 1.
    Rayner, Kelly Wood, Harry Beail, Nigel and Nagra, Maninder Kaur 2015. Intellectual disability, personality disorder and offending: a systematic review. Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Vol. 9, Issue. 2, p. 50.
    Oltmanns, Thomas F. Rodrigues, Merlyn M. Weinstein, Yana and Gleason, Marci E. J. 2014. Prevalence of Personality Disorders at Midlife in a Community Sample: Disorders and Symptoms Reflected in Interview, Self, and Informant Reports. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, Vol. 36, Issue. 2, p. 177.
    2014. Forensic Psychiatry. p. 801.
    O'Loughlin, Ailbhe 2014. The Offender Personality Disorder Pathway: Expansion in the Face of Failure?. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, Vol. 53, Issue. 2, p. 173.
    Scully, Crispian 2014. Scully's Medical Problems in Dentistry. p. 294.
    Download full list
    ×
  • Access

The distinction between personality disorder and mental illness

  • R. E. Kendell (a1)
Abstract
Background

Proposals by the UK Government for preventive detention of people with ‘dangerous severe personality disorders' highlight the unresolved issue of whether personality disorders should be regarded as mental illnesses.

Aims

To clarify the issue by examining the concepts of psychopathy and personality disorder, the attitudes of contemporary British psychiatrists to personality disorders, and the meaning of the terms ‘mental illness'and ‘mental disorder’.

Method

The literature on personality disorder is assessed in the context of four contrasting concepts of illness or disease.

Results

Whichever of the four concepts or definitions is chosen, it is impossible to conclude with confidence that personality disorders are, or are not, mental illnesses; there are ambiguities in the definitions and basic information about personality disorders is lacking.

Conclusions

The historical reasons for regarding personality disorders as fundamentally different from mental illnesses are being undermined by both clinical and genetic evidence. Effective treatments for personality disorders would probably have a decisive influence on psychiatrists' attitudes.

  • View HTML
      • Send article to Kindle

      To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about sending to your Kindle.

      Note you can select to send to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be sent to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

      Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

      The distinction between personality disorder and mental illness
      Available formats
      ×
      Send article to Dropbox

      To send this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Dropbox.

      The distinction between personality disorder and mental illness
      Available formats
      ×
      Send article to Google Drive

      To send this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Google Drive.

      The distinction between personality disorder and mental illness
      Available formats
      ×
Copyright
COPYRIGHT: © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2002 
References
Hide All
American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn) (DSM–IV).Washington, DC: APA.
Baxter, J. (2000) Obesity surgery – another unmet need. British Medical Journal, 321, 523–524.
Bateman, A. & Fonagy, P. (1999) Effectiveness of partial hospitalisation in the treatment of borderline personality disorder: a randomised controlled trial. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 1563–1569.
Blackburn, R., Gunn, J., Hill, J., et al (1993) Personality disorders. In Forensic Psychiatry: Clinical, Legal and Ethical Issues (eds Gunn, J. & Taylor, P. J.), pp. 373–406. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Bourse, C. (1975) On the distinction between disease and illness. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 5, 49–68.
Campbell, E. J. M., Scadding, J. G. & Roberts, R. S. (1979) The concept of disease. British Medical Journal, ii, 757–762.
Coccaro, E. F. & Kavoussi, R. J. (1997) Fluoxetine and impulsive aggressive behavior in personality-disordered subjects. Archives of General Psychiatry, 54, 1081–1088.
Department of Health & Home Office (2000) Reforming the Mental Health Act. Cm 5016. London: Stationery Office.
Drake, R. E. & Vaillant, G. E. (1985) A validity study of Axis II of DSM –III. American Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 553–558.
Harris, E. C. & Barraclough, B. (1998) Excess mortality of mental disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 173, 11–53.
Home Office & Department of Health (1999) Managing Dangerous People with Severe Personality Disorder: Proposals for Policy Development. London: Home Office/Department of Health.
Kendell, R. E. (1975) The concept of disease and its implications for psychiatry. British Journal of Psychiatry, 127, 305–315.
Kendell, R. E. (1986) What are mental disorders? In Issues in Psychiatric Classification (eds Freedman, A. M., Brotman, R., Silverman, I., et al), pp. 23–45. New York: Human Sciences Press.
Kendell, R. E. (1993) The nature of psychiatric disorders. In Companion to Psychiatric Disorders (5th edn) (eds Kendell, R. E. & Zealkey, A. K.), pp. 1–7. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.
King, L. S. (1954) What is disease? Philosophy of Science, 21, 193–203.
Kräupl Taylor, F. (1971) A logical analysis of the medico-physiological concept of disease. Psychological Medicine, 1, 356–364.
Lewis, A. (1974) Psychopathic personality: a most elusive category. Psychological Medicine, 4, 133–140.
Lewis, G. & Appleby, L. (1988) Personality disorder: the patients psychiatrists dislike. British Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 44–49.
Lilienfeld, S. O. & Marino, L. (1995) Mental disorder as a Roschian concept: a critique of Wakefield's ‘harmful dysfunction’ analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 104, 411–420.
Linehan, M. M., Armstrong, H. E., Suarez, A., et al (1991) Cognitive-behavioral treatment of chronically parasuicidal borderline patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 1060–1064.
Martin, R. L., Cloninger, R., Guze, S B., et al (1985) Mortality in a follow up of 500 psychiatric outpatients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 42, 47–54; 58–66.
Scadding, J. G. (1967) Diagnosis: the clinician and the computer. Lancet, ii, 877–882.
Schneider, K. (1950) Die psychopatischen Personlichkeiten (9th edn). Vienna: Deuticke.
Wakefield, J. C. (1992) The concept of mental disorder: on the boundary between biological facts and social values. American Psychologist, 47, 373–388.
Wakefield, J. C. (1999) Evolutionary versus prototype analyses of the concept of disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 108, 374–379.
World Health Organization (1980) International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps. Geneva: WHO.
World Health Organization (1992a) The ICD–10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders: Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Guidelines. Geneva: WHO.
World Health Organization (1992b) International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (10th revision) (ICD–10).Geneva: WHO.
Recommend this journal

Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this journal to your organisation's collection.

The British Journal of Psychiatry
  • ISSN: 0007-1250
  • EISSN: 1472-1465
  • URL: /core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry
Please enter your name
Please enter a valid email address
Who would you like to send this to? *

CAPTCHA *

Skip to the audio challenge
×

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Abstract views

Total abstract views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between <date>. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed

  • Cited by 77
  • Cited by
    Crossref Citations
    Crossref logo
    This article has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by CrossRef.
    Wassef, Andréanne 2017. Questionnements et malaises d’une future psychiatre. Santé mentale au Québec, Vol. 42, Issue. 1, p. 445.
    Patronek, Gary 2017. Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians and Staff. p. 431.
    Pilgrim, David 2017. Incorrigible conduct and incorrigible diagnoses: the case of personality disorder. Social Theory & Health, Vol. 15, Issue. 4, p. 388.
    Satel, Sally L. and Lilienfeld, Scott O. 2017. If Addiction is not Best Conceptualized a Brain Disease, then What Kind of Disease is it?. Neuroethics, Vol. 10, Issue. 1, p. 19.
    Roberts, Louise Meakings, Sarah Forrester, Donald Smith, Audra and Shelton, Katherine 2017. Care-leavers and their children placed for adoption. Children and Youth Services Review, Vol. 79, Issue. , p. 355.
    Ng, Lillian Lywan 2017. Thinking on writing a critical essay. Australasian Psychiatry, Vol. 25, Issue. 2, p. 187.
    Newton-Howes, Giles Mulder, Roger Ellis, Pete M. Boden, Joseph M. and Joyce, Peter 2017. Predictive Utility of Personality Disorder in Depression: Comparison of Outcomes and Taxonomic Approach. Journal of Personality Disorders, p. 1.
    Anthony, Rebecca Meakings, Sarah Doughty, Julie Ottaway, Heather Holland, Sally and Shelton, Katherine H. 2016. Factors affecting adoption in Wales: Predictors of variation in time between entry to care and adoptive placement. Children and Youth Services Review, Vol. 67, Issue. , p. 184.
    Asherson, Philip and Cormand, Bru 2016. The genetics of aggression: Where are we now?. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics, Vol. 171, Issue. 5, p. 559.
    Hadi, Fazal Dato, Serena Carpi, Francesco M. Prontera, Paolo Crucianelli, Francesca Renda, Federica Passarino, Giuseppe and Napolioni, Valerio 2015. A genetic-demographic approach reveals a gender-specific association of SLC6A3/DAT1 40 bp-VNTR with life-expectancy. Biogerontology, Vol. 16, Issue. 3, p. 365.
    Hassan, Lamiece Edge, Dawn Senior, Jane and Shaw, Jenny 2015. Accounting for Psychotropic Medication Changes in Prisons. Qualitative Health Research, Vol. 25, Issue. 7, p. 954.
    Warrender, D. 2015. Staff nurse perceptions of the impact of mentalization-based therapy skills training when working with borderline personality disorder in acute mental health: a qualitative study. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Vol. 22, Issue. 8, p. 623.
    Smith, Carl R. Katsiyannis, Antonis Losinski, Mickey and Ryan, Joseph B. 2015. Eligibility for Students With Emotional or Behavioral Disorders. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, Vol. 25, Issue. 4, p. 252.
    Troisi, Alfonso 2015. The evolutionary diagnosis of mental disorder. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, Vol. 6, Issue. 3, p. 323.
    Tyrer, Peter 2015. Personality dysfunction is the cause of recurrent non-cognitive mental disorder: A testable hypothesis. Personality and Mental Health, Vol. 9, Issue. 1, p. 1.
    Rayner, Kelly Wood, Harry Beail, Nigel and Nagra, Maninder Kaur 2015. Intellectual disability, personality disorder and offending: a systematic review. Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Vol. 9, Issue. 2, p. 50.
    Oltmanns, Thomas F. Rodrigues, Merlyn M. Weinstein, Yana and Gleason, Marci E. J. 2014. Prevalence of Personality Disorders at Midlife in a Community Sample: Disorders and Symptoms Reflected in Interview, Self, and Informant Reports. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, Vol. 36, Issue. 2, p. 177.
    2014. Forensic Psychiatry. p. 801.
    O'Loughlin, Ailbhe 2014. The Offender Personality Disorder Pathway: Expansion in the Face of Failure?. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, Vol. 53, Issue. 2, p. 173.
    Scully, Crispian 2014. Scully's Medical Problems in Dentistry. p. 294.
    Download full list
    ×
  • Access

The distinction between personality disorder and mental illness

  • R. E. Kendell (a1)
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.

×

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

Conflicting interests

Do you have any conflicting interests? *

Cancel
Confirm
×