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Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using classificatory systems in mental illness. Although mental illness ("a level of functioning which is not socially acceptable or not personally satisfying" - Boehm, 1972) has as old a history as physical illness, it is only relatively recently that it has been classified: Kraeplin devised the first classification scheme in the 19th Century, with the concept that some syndromes have features in common. Classification has recently been defined rather well as 'the process of reducing the complexity of phenomena by arranging them into categories according to some established criteria for one or more purposes' (Spitzer and Wilson, 1975). However, despite their practical usefulness, or even necessity, classificatory systems have come in for much criticism, most particularly due to their apparent unreliability. Although the evidence seems to be massed against classification, it will become apparent that it is not the concept of classification that is at...

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