In the New York Times (4/28, Subscription Publication) Magazine, Linda Logan wrote about her own experience with bipolar disorder and how treatment is gradually shifting to address the lost sense of self that plagues patients. “For many people with mental disorders, the transformation of the self is one of the most disturbing things about being ill. And their despair is heightened when doctors don’t engage with the issue, don’t ask about what parts of the self have vanished and don’t help figure out strategies to deal with that loss.” She writes that too much of treatment is now medicine-based, “and a patient’s crisis of self is not very likely to come up in a 15-minute session with a psychopharmacologist.”
Related Links:
— “The Problem With How We Treat Bipolar Disorder, “Linda Logan, The New York Times, April 26, 2013.