Du är sjuk - men inte på riktigt. En studie om webbsidors konstruktion av emotionellt instabil personlighetsstörning

Sammanfattning: The objective of this study was to through means of discourse analyse examine how borderline personality disorder (BPD) and those diagnosed with it were constructed on nine websites offering information about the diagnosis. Findings suggested that the concept of BPD was difficult to grasp, both for those who receive the diagnosis and for those around them. Further emerged a picture of the adult diagnosed with BPD consistently reduced to being understood more like a child. BPD was found to be a vague diagnosis encompassing discrepancies between being comprised of a set of behavioural patterns or a disorder routed within the person. Findings also suggested an understanding of BPD as enveloped in gender norms, as the exhibiting of those emotions and behaviours which are included in the symptomatology are, by means of social structures, perceived differently depending on a person’s gender.