Posted by Zo on May 18, 2002, at 2:51:33
In reply to A Big Question -- about Borderline Personality Dis, posted by Sarahmarie on May 17, 2002, at 22:46:04
People toss around this whole personality disorder thing waay too easily. A personality disorder is NOT on the same spectrum as neurosis, or "having issues". . .and it is NOT a genuine response to genuine trauma. It is its own thing, fixed and rather untreatable. One HALLMARK of whether you have a PD is whether or not the question occurs to you! PDs are indentifiable by a marked absence of the observing ego. There is not the same internal questioning process; in fact, PDs are largely without the capacity to self-question.
You can have borderline TRAITS, or narcissitic TRAITS, and they can be pretty damn severe. . .but if someone has a PD, my way of thinking about is, that person is Hard Wired that way. Which is not to suggest compulsion as much as, this is their universe, the way they are, their reality from the ground up. . .so what's to change? They may--and do--inflict on the rest of us, but whatever they do, they are particularly bound by their own universe. . .whereas "normal" people know we live in a somewhat fluid state. That life is ambiguous. You wanna know who has BPD? Someone who can *only* see things in black--or white.
It's hard to imagine, if you ain't got it. . .and if you do, you haven't the ability to imagine anything else.
Zo
poster:Zo
thread:24005
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020517/msgs/24015.html