Through The Looking Glass: Women And Borderline Personality Disorder

224 Pages·1997·42.56 MB·English

by  Dana Becker

Through the Looking Glass
New Directions in Theory and Psychology
Series Editors
Rachel T. Hare-Mustin and Jeanne Marecek
Focusing on emerging theory in psychology and related fields, this schol-
arly/trade series examines contemporary ideas broadly associated with post-
modernism, social constructionism, feminist theory, and other critical refor-
mulations of psychology. We seek manuscripts that propose or exemplify
new ways of doing psychology, that reconsider foundattonal assumptions of
psychological inquiry and practice, and that offer new approaches to therapy
theory and practice. Among the topics considered are the social construction
of such categories of difference/hierarchy as gender, race and ethnicity, class,
and sexuality; and the politics of knowledge. Of interest as well are works
that examine ways in which psychology—as a body of knowledge and a cul-
tural institution—replicates or challenges arrangements of power and privi-
lege in society,
Rachel T. Hare-Mustin, Villanova University, and Jeanne Marecek, Swarth-
raore College, coauthored Making a Difference: Psychology and the Construc-
tion of Gender,
Books in This Series
Through the Looking Class: Women and Borderline
Personality Disorder, Dana Becker
Men's Ways of Being, edited by Christopher McLean,
Maggie Carey, and Cheryl White
Sex Is Not a Natural Act ami Other Essays, Leonore Tiefer
FORTHCOMING
Latino. Realities: Essays on Healing, Migration,
and Sexuality, Oliva M. Espin
T H R O U GH
T HE L O O K I NG
GLASS
Women and Borderline
Personality Disorder
Dana Becker
Westview
PRESS
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
eit-' Directions in TI-M&ry &nd Psychology
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lislier.
Copyright © 1997 by Westvicw Press. A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Pubtislitidf in 1997 hi the. Unita.! .States of America by Westvtcw Press* 5500 Central Avctsuc, Boulclei1,
C*olofadi>, 80301-2877, and m die United Kingdom by Westvicw Press- 1.2 Hid?s Copse Ro;jcl, C.iimnoi1
Hill Oxford OX2 9JJ
Libraiy o£ Congress Cacaloging-ixi-Publication Data
Becker, Oarsa.
Through the looking glass: women aad bordeiiiae personality
dkortler / Daoa, Backer.
p. ctts (Isfew c,u^cc|ioo,s in tli<jt>rv and psychology)
Includes bibnogntphioil relerenc^s an*! iiutcs.
ISBN 0-8j33-3309-J.—ISBN 0-8133-3310-5 ()*k,)
1. Borderline persoEialit)' disorder. 2. Women—MeBta! heakh—
Sociological aspects, 3. Wbmen^Sodalkatton, 4. Sex role—
Psychologies] aspects^ I. llde, II. Series.
RC569.5.B67B43 1997
6i6.85'852'0082—dc21 97-8091
C1P
The piptif us«f in this pubikation meets the ftxiuiit-ments of ihc American National .Staiulard (xir !\'rnia-
IK.UCC of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-I984.
10 9 8 7 6 5
To my mother and father,
Betty and Marvin Becker
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Contents
Acknowledgments br
Prologue: "Borderline" Women Among the Mentally III xl
/ Frew Witchcraft to Hysteria to BPD: A Brief
History of Female Insanity 1
Women and Madness: A Historical View, 1
A "Chattering, Canting Age," 6
'Two Women's Histories: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
and Alice James, 9
2 Taxonomy as Destiny? The Birth of Labels 27
"Mad" Women and "Bad" Men, 29
Mental Illness and Labeling Theory:
Are We Blaming the Victim? 30
Gender Roles, Mental Illness, and the Price of Deviance, 31
Psychiatry's Family Bible; DSM, 34
The Clinical Realities of Naming and Diagnosis, 36
The Personality Disorders: Prevalence and Politics, 39
Gender Bias in Diagnosis, 41
3 The Rise and Fall of the Borderline Concept 49
Object Relations, Developmental Arrest, and the
Borderline Syndrome, 50
Critiques of Theoretical Formulations, 56
4 Toward an Etiology of Borderline Symptomatology 60
Biology as Destiny? 60
Abuse Traumata and Psychological Distress, 63
vii
viii Contents
The BPD/PTSD Controversy: Who's on First? 70
Development of the Self, Developmental Psychopathology
and the Borderline Disorder, 78
.5 Through the looking Glass: Female Socialization and
Personality Disorder 87
In the Looking Glass, 87
A Case of Privileged Meaning; The Reification of Autonomy, 97
Continuities and Discontinuities in Women's Coming
of Age, 100
6 Anger, Dependency, and Fear; Women at the Bonier 110
Member of the Wedding, \ 10
Autonomy Revisited: Personality Disorder and Ideas
About Autonomy, 11.6
Anger, Dependency, and Personality Disorder, 116
7 "Borderline" Self-Destructiveness and, Therapeutic Breakdown I32
Self-Injury and BPD, 134
Borderline Women and the Dialogue of Suicide, 142
Treatment at the Border, 1.46
Notes 161
References 1.68
About the Book and Author 1.92
Index 193
Acknowledgments
This book would not exist were it. not for the belief, handed down to me by
my parents, that what one chooses for work must be something one cares
deeply about. Conversations over many years with my father, Marvin Becker,
have been encouraging and enlightening. He is a scholar whose methods of
disciplined study, whose intellectual fearlessness, and whose passion for ideas
have always inspired me.
I have become a better thinker about women's problems because 1 have
worked hard to understand my own journey, and because my clients have
permitted me to understand theirs. My clients, supervisees, and students
continue to be instrumental in my learning.
Many others have contributed to this project in ways direct and indirect.
Sharon Lamb is a mentor and friend who has encouraged, cajoled, and ad-
vised me at every turn, and who has provided important criticism of the
manuscript. The interest that Rachel Hare-Mustin has shown in my work
has been a source of great satisfaction, given my tremendous admiration for
her. Jeanne Marecek gave valuable time to go over the entire manuscript with
me, and her suggestions were right on the mark. These arc just a few of the
feminist thinkers whose work has influenced me profoundly.
I have been lucky to have had wonderful mentor-friends who have helped
me to learn to take myself and my ideas seriously. Sally Russo, as a person, a
therapist, and a teacher, has had an enormous impact on my way of feeling
and thinking. Rose Schneiderrnan has always been helpful, interested, and
interesting; so has John Steidl.
Howard Liddle has helped me become both a better therapist and a more
careful thinker about the process of therapy. The agility of his mind, his con-
fidence in me, and his generosity in providing me with fascinating work over
the past five years are greatly appreciated. I have also learned much from my
colleagues at the Center for Research on Adolescent Drug Abuse at Temple
University.
ix