“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Mental Illness vs. Personality Disorder

Popular prejudices about schizophrenia and general ignorance about borderline get in the way of thinking straight about the differences. But there's a reason why borderline is a personality disorder and schizophrenia is a condition. Schizophrenia, for all its horrors, is like the flu: you can get it and one day, you don't have it. Borderline, on the other hand, is far more deeply embedded in your psyche.

(And yes I know these terms can be vague and loose. But so is the term omelet. Yet if you've eaten a few, you can tell the difference between one and scrambled eggs.)

(And yes, I know that these things have degrees. Not everyone with borderline acts on murderous envy.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The story of Janet Frame

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQMCTP7VLtI&feature=related