The field of post traumatic stress disorder is interesting. I have come across a few people and it is sometimes gets mistaken for borderline personality disorder. In fact, one of the tutors on my art therapy course thought that complex post traumatic stress disorder would be better for what is regarded as borderline personality disorder. To some extent I agree but I am not sure that there is not a subtle difference. Whatever the labels, severe stress does terrible things to us.

Really, even though I am writing about Freud and arguing against Darkneos's dismissal of Freud I think that various schools of thought can contribute to the understanding of various conditions. I am sure that Freud would not be opposed to neuroscience and in his time hypnotherapy was fashionable so he went down that route.

Understanding is an open quest and can learn from the various competing disciplines and fields of thought. I think philosophy needs to engage in this way rather than thinkers becoming too rigid, fixed and attached to any one way of thinking. The philosopher needs to be able to do mental gymnastics to stay adrift in the rocky slopes of our times. — Jack Cummins

I hate labels! The only thing we should label is a behavior, not the person, with a few exceptions that have biological causes that can be validated. I think, when we get to personality disorders, we are getting into skittishy territory. We all know what a unicorn is and there is no such thing as a unicorn. If we can think it, we can create it in our own minds, but that doesn't make it so. That is kind of like becoming aware of a concept and naming a god to represent that concept. Civilizations with multiple gods eventually had to give them up because there was no end to the number of new gods.

Oh but when it comes to specialist and rigid thinking that is a dead end road! I love the gods because they were essential to the development of our consciousness. This is not possible when there is only one God. When there are many gods(concepts) we can realize new ones (concepts) and when they interact, our consciousness is expanded. That just does not happen when there is only one God. Your awareness is limited to what that one God said. Today different fields of study have replaced the gods and too much specialization lead to realizing these specialist must interact to increase understanding. Each god and each field of study is a different point of view. The more points of view we have the more will see up to a point. Too many gods can be overwhelming. Expanding consciousness is kind of like breathing. There is a rhythm to it. Expand awareness, assimilate it. Expand awareness, assimilate it.

I am sorry that I did not reply to your post sooner, but I have reflected on what you said. I agree with what you say about labels. While I was working in mental health care it was very difficult to stay clear of the limitations of labels, especially the one of borderline personality disorder. Just the idea evokes prejudice before you even meet a person. Psychiatric reports can also make horrible sweeping, condemning evaluations of people. Sometimes the reports and diagnostic statements are taken as facts when they are only opinions.

In a way I do find that I can think more freely having stepped outside of working in the psychiatric system. If I do go back to working in the area of mental health, because I am still interested in it as much as ever, I would prefer to do in some way which is less rigid and bound up with institutions.For example, I would consider working with the homeless and I prefer spending time with the people directly.

As for psychoanalysis, even that can be diagnostic and some therapists can be very judgemental. I prefer to read the writings of Freud, Jung as well as drawing upon the many different psychological perspectives in order to form the broadest possible understanding of human suffering and creative solutions.