> A more productive discussion might be why we feel the need to pathologize so much about ourselves. Why do we need a person to look us over and say "Ah, none o

> A more productive discussion might be why we feel the need to pathologize so much about ourselves. Why do we need a person to look us over and say "Ah, none of what you are is your fault" to feel OK? It's not as much pathologizing, for me personally, it's got more to do with self-discovery and having some kind of independent and external feedback for it. I can introspect a whole lot about why I am the way I am, but that perspective can never be objective on its own due because it's all subjective to my internal memories, interpretations, and perspective, which will be biased and flawed in ways unrecognizable to me. A diagnosis gives the feeling of defining something about one-self there, nothing just imagined by that person, but confirmed by an external person, an "expert in the field" too. If you tend to OCD about certain topics, like personality/consciousness, this can have the interesting allure of giving some supposed certainty that probably never can be given.