Narcissistic personality disorder is slated for removal from the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, to be published in 2013. So notes Charles Zanor in yesterday’s New York Times.
But for some reason, Zanor glossed over the loss of four other personality disorders in the shakeup too — Paranoid, Schizoid, Histrionic and Dependent Personality Disorders. (Schizotypal, Antisocial, Borderline, Avoidant and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorders will remain in the new revision.)
Their intended replacements?
“The Work Group recommends that [these disorders] be represented and diagnosed by a combination of core impairment in personality functioning and specific pathological personality traits, rather than as a specific type.”
Is this a good idea?