Published · Commentary
Nothing About Us Without Us: Centering Lived Experience as the AMPD Moves Forward
Plain-language finding
Dimensional diagnosis will not automatically reduce stigma; people who receive personality disorder diagnoses must help evaluate the language and implementation of emerging models.
Project overview
The commentary argues that the future of the AMPD should be informed by lived experience, especially when evaluating stigmatizing trait language, communication practices, and the possible clinical role of sub-diagnostic categories.
Diagnostic language
A new diagnostic language is not automatically a less stigmatizing one.
Changing the structure of diagnosis does not by itself change how people are described, heard, or treated. Lived experience is needed to evaluate the language, implementation, and consequences of a model.
What participation changes
Three places where lived experience belongs in model development.
Consultation should shape the model before its consequences are treated as settled.
Language
How trait and severity terms are heard matters alongside their technical definition.
Implementation
Training, feedback, and clinical communication determine how a diagnostic model is experienced in practice.
Evaluation
A model’s success should include its effects on dignity, understanding, stigma, and care.
Formal citation
Gilbert, K. J. (2026). Nothing about us without us: Centering lived experience as the AMPD moves forward. Personality and Mental Health.