(In)Sanity, Thy Name is Woman (Or, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall)

According to a recent New York Times article, the upcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5 for short) has eliminated five of the current ten personality disorders. Perhaps most noteworthy among the personality disorders to be eliminated is narcissistic personality disorder. (They are also planning to jettison, among others, histrionic personality disorder. Maybe good riddance to that one, as some of the symptoms seem oddly gendered. Consider that sufferers often: “act or look overly seductive”; are “easily influenced by other people”; are “overly concerned with their looks”; are “overly dramatic and emotional”, are “overly sensitive to criticism or disapproval” and believe “that relationships are more intimate than they actually are”. (Hmm. Sounds like WAY too many people I know.)

In an age that is chock full of people babbling loudly on cell phones about the mundane details of their private lives while riding in crowded public conveyances, and twittering and facebooking and blogging (!) endlessly, it is wonderfully ironic that narcissism is soon to be dead letter from a clinical perspective. The “me generation” has breached the defenses and taken over the fort (asylum).

(continue reading the rest of the post here –>)

-Lolita Buckner Inniss

(cross-post from Ain’t I a Feminist Legal Scholar, Too?)