The diagnostic system is becoming truly Orwellian. I know a young man (16) who has been diagnosed with ODD by school staff and no one at church or home can imagine it. He's extremely sweet and helpful. But it turns out (now that John has turned me onto DSM) that the diagnostic criteria for this "personality disorder" only require it to manifest in a single life arena.

So because he is difficult in school, he has a "personality disorder" instead of a "behavioral disorder" ... or,  what I think is most likely, just a lot of frustration because he's continued to be socially promoted to the point where he is entirely incapable of doing his schoolwork. He acts out when he's called on instead of exposing his incapacity. (Which is true of a lot of inner city youth, BTW)

Instead of acknowledging that the system has failed this child, the system observes his acting out within the system and makes it symptomatic of the child's "failure to adapt to the culture" of the system (part of the new definition of "personality disorder").

I think I've time warped to 1984.