This is a trend I noticed lately. Being autistic is trendy for instance, people talk about it on social (!) networks, about their lives and all that, which is, if you believe what they are saying, is pretty much normal, save for a few personality quirks, like, well, most humans.
I may be wrong but the "little boxes" in the DSM are not supposed to be an identity. They are supposed to represent a pathology, essentially, if one of the boxes is checked, then you need help. Which box is an indication of what kind of help is the most appropriate: a drug? which one? counselling? hospitalization?
It may be a continuous scale, like most diseases really, but how much help you need has to be quantified in order to take action. That's what the "little boxes" are for, or at least, that's how I see it.
> They are supposed to represent a pathology, essentially
The diagnosis in the DCM are built very strangely. They are basically cluster of symptoms which are statistically seen to occur together in reports (which are necessarily self report the field being psychology).
It does for a somewhat arbitrary definition of what is a pathology. The DSM has a disproportionate impact on what is and isn’t covered by insurance in the US but isn’t overall a very good tool to decide what treatment is the best and I don’t think doctors base their recommendation on what people check or don’t check in the DSM.
> like most diseases really
Psychology is fairly unique in medicine in that we have very little idea of what’s the actual root cause of people mental disorders.
A "personality disorder" is also not static. The idea is that you work with it and heal aspects that make life (more) difficult for you, so you do not have the disorder any more. Not that you make it a part of your identity and demand others to accept your "unique style".
I may be wrong but the "little boxes" in the DSM are not supposed to be an identity. They are supposed to represent a pathology, essentially, if one of the boxes is checked, then you need help. Which box is an indication of what kind of help is the most appropriate: a drug? which one? counselling? hospitalization?
It may be a continuous scale, like most diseases really, but how much help you need has to be quantified in order to take action. That's what the "little boxes" are for, or at least, that's how I see it.