One of my personal heroes is Thomas Szasz (1920 – 2012). Dr. Szasz was a stalwart critic of the neolibertarian taxonomy concerning mental health, or mental illness, whichever way you wish to regard it.
In the prologue to my book, I state that Dr. Szasz couldn’t have ‘said it any better’ when he stated: ‘People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is something one finds, it is something one creates.’
The persistent argument throughout Szasz’s lifetime work was: ‘Does mental illness really exist, or is modern society ‘guilty’ of marginalising and secularising people whom are deemed ‘different’ from the norm?’
It is an established epistemological fact that as individual people we are all different; we all see it, day-in and day-out. Whereas you may personally respond to a certain situation in a certain way, I may choose (or more fundamentally, be ontologically inclined) to react to the same situation in a very different way. Diversity is the ‘backbone of evolution’. After all, if we were all identical then society wouldn’t evolve and transform and, in a Darwinian sense, the ‘survival of the fittest’ would not prevail as an evolutionary ‘advancer’; mankind and society would stagnate and decline.
Which brings me onto ‘mental illness’. Modern society has quite neatly, and (apparently) objectively decreed that people with mental illness(es) are ‘different’ from other people within society. Modern Mental Health Services ‘cater’ and provide for people with this type of affliction, and mental illness (or the ‘lack’ of mental health) is classified as a ‘disease’ in its own right by modern medical encyclopaedias such as ‘DSM-IV TR‘ and ‘ICD-10’. These rigid, constraining medical taxonomies ignore, and even subjugate the notion of diversity and ‘difference’ within modern society to the predominantly neolibertarian model of medical ‘Cartesianism’, where every ‘pathological difference’ to the rest of society can be diagnosed, classified and ‘explained’. In short: ‘If you’re ‘different’, then call quickly for the ‘Men in the White Coats.’
What the modern medical-model fails to recognise is that individual ‘difference’ often leads to major progress and advancements within society. People like Albert Einstein, John Nash and Friedrich Nietzsche may have all been declared ‘mad’ at some point in their lives for thinking, or even feeling what they did, but all three of them have in their own way contributed immensely to furthering an understanding of the very world around us; their views may still to this day remain controversial, but these pioneers are far from ‘mad’ or mentally disordered. Yes, they were/are ‘different’ and you may not personally agree with their respective views/opinions, but they should be respected for their own individual stances on life, as equally as Descartes and Newton.
However, placing idealistic-Hegelianism aside for a moment, it is fortunate that people who are deemed ‘different’ within society are indeed recognised as such, even if it is through the often-stigmatising ‘label’ of ‘mental illness’, as this is often the only way that the limited-vocabulary of neolibertarianism can simplistically and nonchalantly explain-away ‘difference’, by perversely classifying their condition as a ‘deviance’ from the norm; ironically, this recognised ‘difference’ provides people with mental illness(es) with the requisite ‘acceptance’ that is required for them to function within modern society today.
So what about people with Borderline Personality Disorder? And what about the ‘non-BP’s‘ who become pathologically entangled with these people? Do I believe that people with BPD have a mental illness? Well, modern-medical taxonomy would seem to suggest they do have a recognised mental illness; and as I moot above, that may be no bad thing, in order to help facilitate their striving to be unprejudicially accepted within modern society. The same, of course applies to ‘non-BP’s’ who suffer from mental ‘fall-out’ either as a direct, or indirect result of their relationship with the person with BPD, symptoms of which could include depression or even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Society as a whole needs to be much more understanding as to the causes, symptoms and subsequent ramifications of mental illness, which includes BPD. Much ‘lip service’ and rhetoric is paid to ‘understanding’ mental illness, such as with ‘Mental Health Awareness’ weeks, and other initiatives. But rather than vacuous expressions of hollow pity, society as a whole needs to spend much more time and effort truly understanding these complex conditions, in order to ensure that the underlying prejudice and stigma linked to mental illness is eliminated; this should apply to individuals and collectives alike, such as to employers, and other types of organisations and collectives.
So just because a person has BPD, or conversely is a ‘non-BP’ suffering in a relationship with someone who has BPD, should we call for the ‘Men in the White Coats’? Well, much depends on whether these people are actively seeking help and assistance for their condition(s). For example, if a person with BPD both acknowledges their condition, and is seeking active therapy, then it is highly unlikely that they would pose a risk either to themselves, or to their friends, family or partner; likewise with a ‘non-BP’ who may be the opposite-partner in the ‘dysfunctional dance’ with a BPD.
The problem comes with people who fail to recognise and acknowledge their condition(s), such as those who have undiagnosed/unacknowledged BPD, or those ‘non’s’ who are in denial. In these particular cases, especially in considering the undiagnosed/unacknowledged ‘Borderline’, there may be signs and symptoms of sociopathy. In these cases, the undiagnosed/unacknowledged BPD may have an (often) unintentionally-insidious effect on the people around them, especially on their ‘non’ partner.
If this is the case, and if you find yourself as a ‘non-BP’ in this situation, then I suggest you seek medical attention for yourself as soon as practically possible. Otherwise, you won’t be calling the ‘Men in the White Coats’ for your BPD-partner; it will be for someone else entirely…
Until next time.
Matthew Kelleher's Blog 