Judy, you made the comment: "The DSM diagnoses, remember, are for the guidance of therapists who are working with patients who can't cope, based on the characteristics found in thousands of past patients who couldn't cope."
which may be generally true, I don't know, I am not a shrink. However, people with certain personality disorders may cope just fine, a narcissist or sociopath for example. They may be unpleasant people, but they may not suffer anxiety or depression as a result of their disorders. Or if they do, they blame it on something external to themselves so they likely wouldn't seek treatment. For a time I volunteered with a number of young people that were often runaways and homeless. It was interesting how many suffered from personality disorders. (Given the bad things that had happened to them, also no surprise). Many had no interest whatsoever in treatment. If they were anxious they might want a pill, but they often did not perceive anything wrong with how they viewed the world. Just making a side point in an interesting conversion. The working hard of TM TBs on one fruitless activity after another is very disturbing to me. I am still processing what I think about it and what I think about what y'all think about it. I do think that some TBs reached a point where it would not have mattered much what MMY did or told them to do, the TB would fit it into their view of MMY as an enlightened being whose actions were all right actions. Arguably, they were "trained" that way, whether unwittingly or intentionally. Now that is frightening.
