[dragonwriter]

> My point is more that, the hidden criterion in basically every entry in the DSM is, can they make it work?

That's usually not hidden; criteria involving degree of social problems are associated with other of the symptoms are openly part of the criteria for many disorders.

[hoopladler]

Sure - but I think it's understated how important that stuff is. If you go into a psychiatrists office looking like a mess, you're absolutely, by the book, going to be more likely to accrue a diagnosis. This isn't a critique of psychiatry - it's just a natural result of the DSM being a statistical manual.

It also makes any notion of 'absolute' personality disorder a kind of contradiction in terms.