Outrage over Jamaican personality disorders report

A RECENT study that claimed 40 per cent of Jamaicans have a personality disorder has been slammed by high-profile figures on the island and Voice readers.

The study, carried out by leading Jamaican psychiatrist, Professor Frederick Hickling and clinical psychologist Vanessa Paisley, claimed that 40 per cent of the Caribbean island's population - at least one million adults - suffer from some form of personality disorder.

The researchers, who surveyed more than 1,500 Jamaicans aged between 18 to 64 years, said their findings might help to explain the high levels of crime and social breakdown in the country.

But Anthony Johnson, Jamaica's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, told The Voice, "Recent analysis has found that Jamaicans are among the happiest people in the world. Continuous polling of visitors to Jamaica has found that more than 50 per cent of the visitors say that the aspect of the country which they most enjoy is the people."

And Johnson's views were backed by angry Voice readers such as Kevin Aird who wrote on The Voice's Facebook page: "In the city of London, there is a heavy crime rate. Does that mean that 40 per cent of these people are suffering from some sort of personality disorder? There are problems everywhere you go in the world, just take a look around you!"

Demsey Abwe dismissed the findings as "individual prejudice masquerading as scholarly analysis."

Negative perspective

And another reader Alan Michael wrote, "Are these people saying that only Jamaicans are capable of having a personality disorder and co-incidentally all of them attribute to crime! This is crazy. How about creating opportunity for people? How about focusing on the good things Jamaicans have done and are doing? Why does it always have to be negative?"

However, Paisley and Hickling, who presented their findings at a United States conference, said mental-health problems in Jamaica needed to be highlighted. "Treatment cannot be explored until the country accepts that something is wrong," Hickling said.