Personality disorder is a commonly diagnosed set of psychiatric disorders thatare used to denote a stable and enduring pattern of experience and behaviourthat deviates markedly from cultural expectations. The construct is widelyacknowledged to be problematic on the grounds of its scientific reliability andvalidity and there is a debate in the literature regarding the re-conceptualisationof personality disorder using a dimensional model. This study employs agenealogical methodology to carry out a philisophico-historical analysis of thepolitio-medical conditions of emergence of the construct. The work looks at theway in which disparate discourses have transformed and merged to take onincreasingly essentialist, scientised and rarefied forms during the course of thetwentieth century. The emergence of personality as a multi-dimensionalstatistically knowable phenomenon amenable to professional and technicalmanagement is also explored. The study goes on to apply the ideas from twopapers, Leeming and Boyle's (2004) paper on Shame as a social phenomenonand Moncrieff's (2008) chapter on Neoliberalism and Psychiatry, to thehistorical material drawn upon, in order to explore possible implications from apsychological as well as a political perspective. There are some concludingremarks on the possible value of reflexivity when attempting to addresscomplex issues.3