"Schizophrenics," "borderlines," and the lingering legacy of misplaced concreteness: an examination of the persistent misconception that the DSM classifies people instead of disorders.

Since 1980, a caveat in the introduction to the DSM has stated that the DSM classifies mental disorders and not people. Whether the DSM classifies disorders or people has important human rights implications: if people are being classified rather than disorders, then a person is defined by his/her disorder and cannot recover. Given the ethical implications of this issue, whether the prescriptions of the DSM are followed by researchers and the general public should be investigated. A MEDLINE keyword search found that phrases classifying people by researchers have steadily declined since 1975 but are still used approximately 50% of the time. In the general public, phrases classifying people are currently used equally as often as phrases classifying disorders. Reasons why classification systems must classify disorders instead of people, possible sources for the misconception that people are being classified, and the clinical implications of this issue are discussed.