ABSTRACT
The incidence rate and prevalence of mental disorder in a specific community depends on the definition of mental disorder. The frequency of mental disorders in a specific community determines, or at least should determine, the amount of money that will be earmarked to treat and care for the mentally ill. Many issues have stood in the way to a generally accepted definition of mental disorder. Problems with the definition of mental disorder came up in psychiatric-epidemiological studies as well. A person with personality disorder repeatedly comes into conflict with the law because, among other reasons, they are not able to learn from experience in the way mentally sound people do. It is widely believed that subthreshold disorders appear only within the classification of categorically defined disorders. Psychosis has been used as an epitome of mental disorder in virtually all cases of clouding the disorder—non-disorder difference.
