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What is the effect of labeling people with personality disorders?

Most psychiatrists view labeling as the most effective medical model to treat psychiatric
conditions. They perceive it as the most convenient method as it provides them with a clear-cut
way to deal with individual conditions. What they dont now is that labeling can have adverse
effect on the individual as well as the treatment process; it can result in less effective treatments.
Labelling is significantly associated with stigmatization. Often, people view mental illness as
terminal; something an individual cant gain recovery. It is common knowledge that
stigmatization result in discrimination. A study conducted showed that when people become
aware of the mental status of an individual they are more likely to socially reject that individual
(Madsen and Leech, 2007). We all know that it is morally wrong to discriminate against
individuals based on sex, ethnicity, culture religion and appearance. However, most people are
not aware that people who suffer from mental illness experience discrimination in its various
forms that may not be obvious but very hurtful.
The other negative effect of labeling people with personality disorders is that this label
does stick forever. This means that even if the person manages to recover from such a condition,
peoples perception about her/him as that mentally ill person will exist forever. We tend to judge
such peoples actions (whether good or bad) based on our perception about them as that of a
mentally unstable person. Even worse, labels can be detrimental and hurt the person being
labeled, affecting how she/he view her/himself. Often, the person who is labelled internalizes the
label to the level that he/she feel that her/his whole entity is summarized by it.

Reference
Madsen, K. and Leech, P. (2007). The Ethics of Labeling in Mental Health. Jefferson, NC:
McFarland & Company.

What is the discipline called Psychohistory?

Psychohistory is a fairly new and promising discipline. It attempts to understand people
by psychologically analyzing their past life experiences. Psychohistory tries to explain the
motivation behind the certain behaviors of people by looking into their history. Hence, as a
discipline it calls for absolute respect for facts as well as appropriate self-discipline to avoid
coming up with irrelevant details. A psycho-historian needs to have a directive and corrective
influence of the continuous flow of information from the participant to be able to find out what is
relevant.
The psychohistory discipline has its basis in Freuds psychoanalysis theory that proposed
that out past childhood experiences have an influence on our personality and interpersonal
relations. Psycho-historians also believe argue that behaviors such as delinquency can be a selfdestructive re-enactment of past abuse and neglect. They hold that unconscious memories of past
fears and harsh parenting can influence an individuals behaviors. Thus, psychohistory depends
largely on historical biography (Loewenberg, 2002).
Psycho-historical study focuses on three major inter-related areas: past childhood events,
psychobiography and group psychohistory. To establish the subjects childhood history, it

attempt to find out how the individual was raised, the familys composition, parenting practices,
family values and cases of child abuse and neglect. Psychobiography attempts to understand the
history of individual people and their motivation. Group psychohistory tries to understand the
history of large groups and their motivation.

Reference
Loewenberg, P. (2002). Decoding the Past: The Psychohistorical Approach, Transaction Pub,
ISBN 1-56000-846-6