Because personality disorders are seen as highly complex there is a natural tendency to describe them in convoluted and multifaceted language. Novelists and playwrights have done this for hundreds of years; it is not the task of nosologists to repeat it. Instead we need a simpler classification of a very common disorder, as even if we lose some of the subtlety of the condition this is more than compensated by greater use and understanding. We also need to pay more attention to science rather than to clinical intuition in our terminology. Both the DSM-5 alternative model and the new ICD-11 classification have moved towards a dimensional system of classification that should help in selecting treatment and diluting the pervasive and unhelpful spread of the grossly heterogeneous condition, horderline. This has hindered progress and made us forget the many parts of personality disorder that are not in any way connected to the borderline spectrum and yet which are highly relevant pathologies.