The Borderline Culture

In The Borderline Culture: Intensity, Jouissance, and Death, Željka Matijašević argues that the psychological descriptor, “borderline,” should be extended to encompass the main facets of contemporary Western culture: splitting, affective dysregulation, intensity, and the polarization of good and bad objects.

This work provides a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between cultural variables - ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation - and personality disorders, for example, antisocial, borderline, dependent, histrionic and narcissistic. It examines how cultural variables can effect the conceptualization, epidemiology, and treatment of personality disorders.

"A superb, up-to-date feminist analysis of the borderline condition. . . . Characterized by stereotypically feminine qualities, such as poor interpersonal boundaries and an unstable sense of self, borderline diagnosis has been questioned by many as a veiled replacement of the hysteria diagnosis. . . . Wirth-Cauchon includes narratives from women exhibiting the theoretical underpinnings of the borderline diagnosis. . . . The author is rigorous in her analysis, and mainstream academics and diagnosticians should take note lest they create yet another label that disregards the contradictory and conflicting expectations experienced by so many women. Includes an excellent bibliography and a wealth of good reference. Highly recommended."-Choice "This book contributes to a rich, feminist interdisciplinary theoretical understanding of women's psychological distress, and represents an excellent companion volume to Dana Becker's book titled Through the Looking Glass."-Psychology of Women Quarterly "Wonderfully written. . . . [The] argument proceeds with an impeccable and transparent logic, the writing is sophisticated, evocative, even inspired. This work should have enormous appeal."- Kenneth Gergen, author of Realities and Relationships "Impressive in its synthesis of many different ideas . . . both clinicians and people diagnosed with BPD may find much of value in Wirth-Cauchon's thoughtful and provoking analysis."-Metapsychology At the beginning of the twentieth century, "hysteria" as a medical or psychiatric diagnosis was primarily applied to women. In fact, the term itself comes from the Greek, meaning "wandering womb." We have since learned that this diagnosis had evolved from certain assumptions about women's social roles and mental characteristics, and is no longer in use. The modern equivalent of hysteria, however, may be borderline personality disorder, defined as "a pervasive pattern of instability of self-image, interpersonal relationships, and mood, beginning in early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts." This diagnosis is applied to women so much more often than to men that feminists have begun to raise important questions about the social, cultural, and even the medical assumptions underlying this "illness." Women are said to be "unstable" when they may be trying to reconcile often contradictory and conflicting social expectations. In Women and Borderline Personality Disorder, Janet Wirth-Cauchon presents a feminist cultural analysis of the notions of "unstable" selfhood found in case narratives of women diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. This exploration of contemporary post-Freudian psychoanalytic notions of the self as they apply to women's identity conflicts is an important contribution to the literature on social constructions of mental illness in women and feminist critiques of psychiatry in general. Janet Wirth-Cauchon is an associate professor of sociology at Drake University.

Kleinman, a psychiatrist, trained in anthropology, reports on his studies of health care in Taiwan. He describes his observations of clinical interviews between various medical practitioner, folk-healers, temple medicine men, and Chinese-style and Western-style physicians and their patients. He stress the importance of adopting the proper cultural perspective, making ones interpretations within that framework.

A cynical, disabled film director with borderline personality disorder gets recruited to join a secret organization that oversees relations between Hollywood and Fairyland in this Nebula Award–nominated and Tiptree Award Honor Book that’s the first novel in a new urban fantasy series from debut author Mishell Baker. A year ago, Millie lost her legs and her filmmaking career in a failed suicide attempt. Just when she’s sure the credits have rolled on her life story, she gets a second chance with the Arcadia Project: a secret organization that polices the traffic to and from a parallel reality filled with creatures straight out of myth and fairy tales. For her first assignment, Millie is tasked with tracking down a missing movie star who also happens to be a nobleman of the Seelie Court. To find him, she’ll have to smooth-talk Hollywood power players and uncover the surreal and sometimes terrifying truth behind the glamour of Tinseltown. But stronger forces than just her inner demons are sabotaging her progress, and if she fails to unravel the conspiracy behind the noble’s disappearance, not only will she be out on the streets, but the shattering of a centuries-old peace could spark an all-out war between worlds. No pressure.

The cultural practices and cultural meaning of health care in urban Japan.