Comments on: Kay Redfield Jamison: Personal and Professional Perspectives on Bipolar Disorder http://dbsanca.org/blog/2008/03/23/kay-redfield-jamison-personal-and-professional-perspectives-on-bipolar-disorder/ Musings on events, chapter happenings, etc. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:52:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 By: Phin http://dbsanca.org/blog/2008/03/23/kay-redfield-jamison-personal-and-professional-perspectives-on-bipolar-disorder/#comment-42 Phin Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:26:11 +0000 http://dbsanca.org/blog/2008/03/23/kay-redfield-jamison-personal-and-professional-perspectives-on-bipolar-disorder/#comment-42 There is some speculation that Kay Redfield Jamison's notable failure to ever discuss a differential diagnosis in her own case and her obsessive insistence on differentiating mood disorders from Borderline PD (when much leading research shows intense overlap with axis I disorders in general, especially major recurrent depression, PTSD and Bipolar II, and in particular, that at least in the emotionally dysregulated subtype as opposed to the histrionic impulsive one, there is an undeniable overlap with mood disorders) strikes me uneasily as a kind of denial that runs through much of her otherwise brilliant writing. (Another example is her highly nuanced description of Lord Byron's character, versus the single mindedness of her use of "manic-depressive illness" as sole explanation.) Impulsiveness and alcohol abuse and uneven educational goals in her early adulthood possibly masking the pain of a troubled childhood and early trauma, are stated in her autobiography, but never "diagnosed". As one critic remarked "The firsthand and phenomenologically thorough account of her life, including her decision to abandon her original plans for a medical career, suggests features of an attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity and borderline personality disorder as a comorbid, if not alternative, diagnosis. The latter might have been obliterated as a personal scotoma because the author is conversant with personality disorders from her abnormal psychology studies." Further and greater disservice is done when she (wrongly) equates Borderline PD with Antisocial PD in Night Falls Fast. Again while there is trait overlap in certain cases (as BPD may also overlap with almost all other PD's, and about half of those with BPD have "avoidant" traits instead of "histrionic" or other traits from "cluster B", Jamison's confounding the two is at best inaccurate, and at worst, smacks of bad faith. Just like the rest of us, she wants to be seen as a "good, caring human being". She could have done a lot more for those suffering from mental illnesses however if she had really taken on and brought to light the most severely stigmatized disorder of them all. There is some speculation that Kay Redfield Jamison’s notable failure to ever discuss a differential diagnosis in her own case and her obsessive insistence on differentiating mood disorders from Borderline PD (when much leading research shows intense overlap with axis I disorders in general, especially major recurrent depression, PTSD and Bipolar II, and in particular, that at least in the emotionally dysregulated subtype as opposed to the histrionic impulsive one, there is an undeniable overlap with mood disorders) strikes me uneasily as a kind of denial that runs through much of her otherwise brilliant writing. (Another example is her highly nuanced description of Lord Byron’s character, versus the single mindedness of her use of “manic-depressive illness” as sole explanation.)

Impulsiveness and alcohol abuse and uneven educational goals in her early adulthood possibly masking the pain of a troubled childhood and early trauma, are stated in her autobiography, but never “diagnosed”.

As one critic remarked “The firsthand
and phenomenologically thorough account of her life,
including her decision to abandon her original plans for a
medical career, suggests features of an attention deficit disorder
with hyperactivity and borderline personality disorder
as a comorbid, if not alternative, diagnosis. The latter
might have been obliterated as a personal scotoma because
the author is conversant with personality disorders from her
abnormal psychology studies.”

Further and greater disservice is done when she (wrongly) equates Borderline PD with Antisocial PD in Night Falls Fast. Again while there is trait overlap in certain cases (as BPD may also overlap with almost all other PD’s, and about half of those with BPD have “avoidant” traits instead of “histrionic” or other traits from “cluster B”, Jamison’s confounding the two is at best inaccurate, and at worst, smacks of bad faith.

Just like the rest of us, she wants to be seen as a “good, caring human being”. She could have done a lot more for those suffering from mental illnesses however if she had really taken on and brought to light the most severely stigmatized disorder of them all.

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