I am currently pursuing a PhD research project under the tentative title of ‘Persons, and Personality Disorders: To What Extent Can We Reify Personality Disorders?’. The primary purpose of this research is to address some of the pertinent issues regarding the psychiatric categorisation and classification of personality disorders. The research thus far has dealt with the contemporary and historical problems of psychiatric categorisation, and the particular pertinence of this in the case of personality disorders.

Moving forward, I seek to propose that whilst most psychiatric disorders can be captured in a quasi-realist sense - that is, the language we use to talk about them is not strictly true, but this language represents a less certain underlying understanding, that contains elements of truth. However, this analysis is not available to current, or historical conceptions of personality disorders. My research intends to see how we can instead capture personality disorders through the lens of the trauma and adverse childhood experiences those with them have faced, rather than as a neurological/neurochemical disorder of the brain.