What do my problems say about me?
de Haan,Sanneke
de Haan,Sanneke
Abstract
'If I experience X, is it because of the illness, the medication, or is it 'just me'?' (Karp 2009) [Is it me or my Meds? Living with Antidepressants. Harvard University Press]. This issue is known as self-illness ambiguity (SIA) (Sadler 2007) ["The Psychiatric Significance of the Personal Self." Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes 70 (2): 113-129]. In her paper Know Thyself: Bipolar Disorder and Self-concept, Carls-Diamante (2022) ["Know Thyself: Bipolar Disorder and Self-Concept." Philosophical Explorations, 1-17] offers a taxonomy of different ways in which Bipolar Disorder can be related to one's self and self-concept. In contrast to the essentialist model of mental disorders she seems to adopt, I propose a different outlook on SIA, following an enactive approach to psychiatric disorders as disorders of sense-making. One's way of making sense of the world and/or oneself can become stuck in a rigid pattern that is stronger than oneself and at odds with how one would want to be. I argue that it is helpful to distinguish between the experiential SIA of specific experiences (Am I over/underreacting?) and the long term concerns of existential SIA (How to live my life in accordance with what matters to me despite/while having certain vulnerabilities?). I conclude that knowing oneself is not an intra-individual matter, nor primarily a matter of reflection: it is rather a relational and material practice of trying to live your life in accordance with what matters to you.
Description
Funding Information: The author would like to thank Richard Gipps for his helpful comments on this paper. This publication is part of the project ‘Is it me or my disorder? Authenticity in psychiatry’ (with project number 275-20-067) of the VENI research programme which is financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Date
2023-05-04
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Self-illness ambiguity, Agency, Authenticity, Enactive psychiatry, Mental health, Self-knowledge
Citation
de Haan, S 2023, 'What do my problems say about me?', Philosophical Explorations, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 159-164. https://doi.org/10.1080/13869795.2023.2205416