Far too often in society, people use their diagnosis to define them. Or other well-meaning people or professionals describe someone as “Oh, that person is bipolar” or “She’s just borderline.” I’ve even seen leading mental health advocates refer to themselves as a “depressive” or “schizophrenic.”
I think this kind of shorthand, self-labeling is a bad thing. Here’s why.
People love labels — there’s no denying it. There are so many personality tests online, I’ve lost count. One of the most popular is some form of Jung typology or Myers-Briggs, which categorizes 4 personality traits into one of 32 possible combinations. (In some ways, this is one step up from astrology.)
Labels help us take a valuable cognitive shortcut, which further helps identify and relate to other people or things in our environment. For instance, we all agree on botany terms so scientists from different cultures and backgrounds can talk about the same plant with the same understanding as to its categorization, origins, relatedness, genetics, and even needs.
[For more of this story, written by John M. Grohol, go to http://psychcentral.com/blog/a...-not-your-diagnosis/]
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