“It Comes Across As a Slapped-On Band Aid”: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Therapy Experiences Shared by People with Borderline Personality Disorder
| dc.contributor.author | Mugford, Grace | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-12-10T16:13:32Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-12-10T16:13:32Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a highly stigmatized psychological label that is disproportionately assigned to cisgender women, LGBTQ+ persons, and/or survivors of childhood trauma. While current research identifies psychotherapy as the ‘first line’ treatment practice for addressing the needs of this population, several literature reviews have found that roughly half of those with BPD who attend therapy do not respond or continue to face significant levels of emotional distress following treatment. There has been very little research dedicated to understanding the lived experiences of therapy nonresponse among those diagnosed with BPD. As such, my paper has sought to address this gap by examining how people with BPD construct their personal lived experiences in therapy outside of formal research contexts. Using a critical discourse analysis (CDA) methodology, combined with theory from Mad Studies, I analyzed 60 discussion posts from one popular BPD-related group on Reddit. Ultimately, the results of my study suggested that people with BPD may experience therapy in a variety of diverse ways. In particular, participants’ descriptions of their personal therapy experiences fell into five major themes: Therapy is not meeting personal needs, therapy is invalidating, if not infantilizing, therapy is hard work, therapy is an individual responsibility, and therapy is masking. Situating these themes within Mad theory and the existing BPD-literature, the final chapter of this paper aims to both complicate and offer potential explanations for why people with BPD express such perspectives. Finally, my paper also concludes by highlighting some of the implications that my findings hold for future social work practice. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10315/42564 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.title | “It Comes Across As a Slapped-On Band Aid”: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Therapy Experiences Shared by People with Borderline Personality Disorder | |
| dc.type | Research Paper |