Reply #41: personality disorders aren't considered mental illnesses

[TorchTheWitch]

although I don't think I agree that they aren't because I do believe that there is some sort of underlying brain malfunction or chemical reaction that is at the root of personality disorders like sociopath and narcissism and we just haven't figured that all out yet. As I understand it, the medical community officially considers personality disorders to be entirely learned/chosen behavior, and therefore, not mental illness.

http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/180/2/110
Personality disorders are described in the International Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders (ICD-10) as 'deeply ingrained and enduring behaviour patterns, manifesting themselves as inflexible responses to a broad range of personal and social situations'; they represent 'either extreme or significant deviations from the way the average individual in a given culture perceives, thinks, feels, and particularly relates to others' and are 'developmental conditions, which appear in childhood or adolescence and continue into adulthood' (World Health Organization, 1992a). They are distinguished from mental illness by their enduring, potentially lifelong nature and by the assumption that they represent extremes of normal variation rather than a morbid process of some kind.