Personality Disorders and Thick Concepts

Personality disorders have always attracted considerable attention within the philosophy of psychiatry. It was not until two papers written by Louis Charland, however, that they simulated a wider and lively debate. The importance and, at least partly, the strength of Charland's analyses lie in the fact that they are relatively particular and focused in their scope. What he claims, more specifically, is that the histrionic, borderline, narcissistic, and antisocial personality disorders "are moral and not clinical conditions." The aim of the present paper is to highlight, generalize, and discuss one particular issue brought up by Charland: the possibility of fulfilling his pledge and revising our diagnostic criteria in such a way that they would become evaluatively neutral. It is the very feasibility of such descriptive reformulation project, in brief, that is at stake here.