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New York Times has offered up further coverage of Borderline Personality Disorder in the mass media this month via their newspaper and web site. The newspaper published a story An Emotional Hair Trigger, Often Misread that is a basic overview of the personality disorder. Unfortunately, it seems that even a newspaper journalist can’t quite get the story straight. For instance, the article mischaracterized BPD as a “mood disorder” rather than a personality disorder. That inaccurately implies it is more like depression (which is a mood disorder) which can be treated fairly well in most patients using psychiatric medications, something that so far hasn’t been successful for many people with BPD.
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Readers of our website know we’re concerned about the erosion of Constitutional rights in the United States. It’s commonplace for American governments to violate Constitutional and federal law protections for due process, equal protection under the law, unreasonable search and seizure, and innocent until proven guilty in cases involving alleged child abuse and divorces with contested child custody. But the erosion of civil liberties is spreading far beyond family law.

While researching another article I’m writing, I ran across an article from the Washington Post which really disturbed me. Whether you’re an architecture student or common citizen, you now have reason to be fearful of government oppression if you snap a picture of a building while taking a walk on a public sidewalk or a drive on public streets. Taking such pictures is in no way unlawful. First Amendment rights and court cases have established that taking photographs from public areas, especially outdoors, is lawful. But that doesn’t stop law enforcement and especially security guards who sometimes illegally impersonate police officers for intimidating and even assaulting photographers who are not breaking any laws.
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Springer Publishing Company has announced a new peer-reviewed quarterly journal called Partner Abuse: New Directions in Research, Intervention, and Policy. The editorial board includes noted researchers Donald Dutton, Murray Straus, Richard Gelles, and many others. Click the above link for more information or to subscribe.
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If you’re in the Los Angeles area and are interested in the topic of domestic violence, there’s a conference From Ideology to Inclusion 2009: New Directions in Domestic Violence Research and Intervention this weekend featuring many notable speakers. If you’re not in the area but would like to attend DV training seminars, there’s a list of upcoming ones at National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence: Upcoming Trainings and Events Around the Country.
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The first step in helping somebody with BPD is figuring out that they suffer from it. In the article Could it be Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)?, author Tami Green lists 43 questions to examine your personality or that of somebody close to you to see if you may have Borderline Personality Disorder. The more questions answered “yes”, the more likely a person is to suffer from BPD or a similar mental health problem.
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Tami Green was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Rather than hide her mental health problem or deny it and refuse treatment as so many with BPD do, she’s taken on the challenge of recovering from BPD head-on. Moreover, she’s making part of her own recovery helping other people to learn about BPD and how to recover from it. She’s set up her website Borderline Personality Support and filled it with interesting articles, videos, and other resources.
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I’ve previously written a review and comparison of six divorce books for children. One of my favorites is the book Was It the Chocolate Pudding?: A Story For Little Kids About Divorce written by author Sandra Levins.
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We’re not the only ones who have been discussing the topic of domestic violence being a gender-neutral problem. For the last couple of decades, there has been growing evidence that men and women are affected by domestic violence in similar numbers. Some studies show that DV committed by one partner is actually more commonly committed by the female partner.

There’s a discussion thread on metafilter.com in which this topic is being debated by readers. Click here to take a look and add your comments.

Further Reading

Women Get Off Easy for DV Crimes Due to Sexism

Emily McDonald of Austin, Texas has been arrested for repeatedly putting feces into the feeding tube for her hospitalized 3 year old daughter. Her actions were reportedly captured on hospital surveillance cameras after hospital staff became suspicious that the only way the girl could have fecal matter in her bloodstream would be from fecal contamination from feeding tubes.

Such contamination could produce sepsis which is often fatal. The mother reportedly confessed to police that she knew she was making her daughter sick and was doing so to gain attention. Police claim she admits to putting fecal matter in the feeding tube five times since her daughter was admitted to the hospital on April 15. Given the girl’s medical history, it seems very plausible that medical abuse was what put her into the hospital in the first place.
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On June 15, 2009, the Georgia Supreme Court announced that it’s legal for teachers to have sex with their high school students as long as the students are 16 years or more in age and consent to it. The verdict was 5-2. While not unanimous, the decision indicates the laws banning teachers having sexual contact with students are weakened by failure to restrict the applicability to students who are not adults and also by failure to specifically state that consent is not allowed as a defense.
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