If personality disorder is just maladaptive traits, there is no such thing as personality disorder.

The diagnosis of personality disorder (PD) is undergoing a transition from a categorical model that distinguishes types from one another to a model that characterizes patients with dimensional profiles. The DSM-5 (D iagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed. ) alternative model of personality disorder (AMPD) and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (11th ed.) have two primary criteria: the first is a dimension that differentiates PD from both normal personality and other kinds of disorder, can be used to indicate the overall level of severity of a patient's functional difficulties, and is the basis for PD diagnosis. The second is a set of traits with structural connections to normal-range personality variables that characterize the type of problems the patient is likely to have. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).