Samenvatting

William James stated: "Individuality outruns all classification, yet we insist on classifying every one we meet under some general label". It is argued that people classify to make sense of their world. By labelling (repeating) patterns, we learn to navigate through our world and through our lives. Often, classifying is more important for the person who classifies, than for the classified. This is all the more true if the classified cannot be clearly defined, as is the case in our subject. Only if a disorder can be established indisputably (for example, after infection with x disease y arises) the "benefits" are for both the person who classifies (who can earn a living, eg as a doctor, or pharmacist) and the person that is classified. In all other cases the "merits" of the classification are difficult to determine.