Strong professional criticism has been given to current British Government proposals to identify a group of individuals who would fit within a false diagnostic category of dangerous and severe personality disorder (DSPD). Under proposed new mental health legislation, these individuals would be detained. This proposal is being criticized and critiqued on intellectual, ethical, and pragmatic grounds. Ethical flaws identify attempts to predict rare events, such as serious violence, homicide or suicide, with even the most sensitive and specific of clinical and research instruments and detain individuals without limit of time on the basis of risk rather than on the basis of treatability. In the name of public protection and social control, people live in a society where simplistic solutions are being enacted. What drives the above proposals is the need to split-off and marginalize more sub-groups of the unwanted, and then project unwanted aspects into undesirables. This creates an ever-increasing number of people who will be detained. To prevent being perceived as agents of social hygiene and control and to avoid losing their therapeutic and moral potency, psychiatrists and other health service professionals are encouraged to reject and not accommodate the proposals. There is a need to retain the essentials of ethical and effective treatment with earned trust and primary responsibility to the individual patient. References