"In this book, the author explores how personality disorders rose to prominence in a variety of disciplines and the controversies they have generated. It will consider the variety of ways that personalities have been seen as "disorders" and tied to or separated from other kinds of mental disorders. Relatedly, it will examine how the notion of the "personality disorder" has involved negative moral and cultural evaluations that are more related to social deviance than to medical conditions"--

Allan V. Horwitz (PRINCETON, NJ) is the Board of Governors and Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology and the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers University. He is the author of DSM: A History of Psychiatry's Bible, PTSD: A Short History, Anxiety: A Short History, and Creating Mental Illness.