#06 Having or being? Questions of ontology pt. 2

It has even been said that depression, anorexia, and phobia are not something we ‘have’, rather they are modes of being of the person. But what does ‘being’ depressed, anorexic, or phobic mean?

It has even been said these pathologies do not happen to the person, they are worlds instead, which persons inhabit. So: one does not have autism, one is autistic. Or, at least, this is what they say.

It has even been said that one has become schizophrenic, as if it were the culmination of a personal, and unique trajectory. But, which formulations can make justice to the lived experience of the person?

In this episode Cristiano will be the spokesperson of the “being” formulation. But Giacomo has got some objections.

So: does one have a mental illness, or should we rather say that one is mentally ill? If the titles didn’t make it clear enough, this debate is our focus for this, and the last episode.

References

Bollas, C. (2015). When the sun bursts: the enigma of schizophrenia. Yale University Press.

Carrère. E. (2011) Lives Other Than My Own: A Memoir

Laing, R. D. (1960) The divided self: An existential study in sanity and madness. Penguin Books

Lingiardi, V., & McWilliams, N. (Eds.). (2017). Psychodynamic diagnostic manual: PDM-2 (2nd ed.). The Guilford Press.

Stanghellini, G., Broome, M. R., Fernandez, A. V., Fusar-Poli, P., Raballo, A., & Rosfort, R. (Eds.). (2019). Oxford handbook of phenomenological psychopathology. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198803157.001.0001

A video adaptation produced by the World Health Organization (2012), based on Matthew Johnstone’s book (2005). I had a black dog, his name was depression

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