House Of Cards We come into this world like a ball of clay ready to be molded into a work of art. Our parents are often our biggest influences. We often learn our values and morals from our parents. Our temperament and what we learn is acceptable in terms of our behavior is learned and molded by our environment. If we are raised by well adjusted stable parents, we have an easier time adjusting to the adult world. When we are raised by someone who has unresolved personal issues from their past or has a personality disorder it is only then when the ball of clay can become a distorted version of its intended vision. Mental Illness or Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is still taboo to talk about in our society. BPD is defined by the …show more content…
Bruce runs a funeral home and restores his families old victorian home as a personal hobby and passion. Behind the “perfect” family facade you will find that Bruce is a deeply troubled man. He struggled as an adolescent with his sexual identity and carried the anger and frustration this caused into his adulthood. This created issues in his marriage and caused him trouble connecting with his children. In this book we see how a child who is growing and developing is repeatedly subjected to rejection, outburst of anger, and isolation by her father and the effect it has on who she becomes. As you read Fun House you can see Bruce display BPD symptoms and how it effects his relationship with his wife and …show more content…
Alison Bechdel states in a Boston Globe article (2017) “Alison Bechdel, bringing it all back ‘Home’” “I thought that I had worked it all out in the book, “ she says. “But seeing this play has had a cathartic effect.” The skeletons no doubt, are out of the closet.” Fun Home shows how as the reader we can become educated and heal from the stories like that of Alison Bechdel’s childhood. We also can see Alison’s journey of healing as well. This full circle journey is why literature is so versatile and important to our society and culture. We depend on the creation and growth of literary themes like the ones we see in Fun House to help us grow and deal with the real world. I have experience with a narcissistic father and a mother with BPD. While reading Fun House I empathized with Alison Bechdel. I sat and reflected on my own upbringing and found many similarities. I found myself rethinking impactful events from my childhood and having a different point of view after reading this
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Show MoreIn the memoir, Fun Home, Alison Bechdel effectively depicted her life as a child all the way up to age nineteen when she finally decided to come out to her family. Growing up Alison’s path crossed paths with struggles that try to hinder her while she attempts to grasp on to the identity of being homosexual. Even though Bechdel encounter struggles she is able to overcome those struggles in a supportive environment. Despite her father, Bruce Bechdel homosexuality, which was unknown to Alison for the majority of her life could possibly be the emotional core of Fun Home. In actuality, it is Alison 's personal coming out party that assists her mother, Helen Bechdel, to expose Bruce 's hidden relationships to Alison. Effectively, the process of writing the memoir has really permitted Bechdel to reminisce about her father through the spectacles of her experiences, later giving her the chance to reveal clues about her father 's undercover desires that she was incapable of interpreting at the moment. In a scene where Bruce takes his openly queer daughter to a gay bar embodies the dissimilarities amongst Bruce and Alison 's attitudes of dealing with their homosexuality. Bruce tussles with the shame of hiding his
The video, Back From the Edge: Living With and Recovering From Borderline Personality Disorder (2012), created by the Borderline Personality Disorder at New York-Presbyterian (n.a), not only has an excellent summary of symptoms, treatments, and biological predispositions of BPD, but it also includes success stories and documentaries of those diagnosed with the dreadful illness. On the other hand the video also captures the family’s perspective of the illness and how they have coped with the distress of having a close loved one who has the diagnoses of BPD. The video also consists of expert psychiatrists including Dr. Wayne Fenton, Dr. John Gunderson, and Dr. Otto Kenberg as well as a psychologist, Dr. Marsha Linehan who provide explanations of the illness as well as effective treatment interventions that bring a sense of hope and relief to those struggling with BPD.
In the graphic novel Fun Home, by Allison Bechdel, sexual self-discovery plays a critical role in the development of the main character, Allison Bechdel herself; furthermore, Bechdel depicts the plethora of factors that are pivotal in the shaping of who she is before, during and after her sexual self-development. Bechdel’s anguish and pain begins with all of her accounts that she encountered at home, with her respective family member – most importantly her father – at school, and the community she grew up within. Bechdel’s arduous process of her queer sexual self-development is throughout the novel as complex as her subjectivity itself. Main points highlight the difficulties behind which are all mostly focused on the dynamics between her and her father. Throughout the novel, she spotlights many accounts where she felt lost and ashamed of her coming out and having the proper courage to express this to her parents. Many events and factors contributed to this development that many seem to fear.
Fun Home is about Alison Bechdel, her mom and dad, and her two brothers. Living in a small town in Pennsylvania, the Bechdel family owns and operates a funeral home that they come to call, the ”Fun Home”, which is also the title of this novel. Both of her parents are English teachers, but these are not what they truly yearn for in life. Alison’s mother has a true passion for acting and her father, Bruce Bechdel, enjoys restoring old houses to their original being and is able to, as Bechdel says it, “spin garbage into gold” (Bechdel page 6). Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is a...
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) has been a disability surrounded by stigma and confusion for a long time, and the time to bring awareness and public understanding to this disability is long overdue. The disability itself often gets misdiagnosed as an other disability since the symptoms overlap with many other disabilities (NIMH, n.d, para 16), or worse case scenario, a medical professional refuses to diagnose or treat the disability due to the belief that these people are untreatable because of a negative schema about the disability and clinical controversies on whether BPD is a legitimate diagnosis (Hoffman, 2007) . However, after nearly three decades of research, it has come to light that BPD does indeed exist, does have a good prognosis for remission with treatment (BPD Overview, n.d, para 3), and that there are many treatment options available such as three different types of psychotherapy (Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Schema-focused therapy), omega-3 fatty acid supplements, and/or medications (NIMH, n.d, para 29, 30, 31, and 39, 41). Even though the disability started as a psychoanalytic colloquialism for untreatable neurotics (Gunderson, 2009), BPD is very treatable and doesn’t deserve the stigma it currently carries throughout society.
In the past, BPD was believed to be a set of symptoms between problems associated with mood and schizophrenia. These symptoms were believed to be comprised of distortions of reality and mood problems. A closer look at this disorder has resulted in the realization that even though the symptoms of this disorder reveal emotional complexity, this disorder is more closer to other personality disorders, on the basis of the manner in which it develops and occurs in families, than to schizophrenia (Hoffman, Fruzzetti, Buteau &ump; Neiditch, 2005). The use of the term borderline has however, resulted in a heated controversy between the health care fraternity and patients. Patients argue that this term appears to be somehow discriminatory and that it should be removed and the disorder renamed. Patients point out that an alternative name, such as emotionally unstable personality disorder, should be adopted instead of borderline personality disorder. Clinicians, on the other hand, argue that there is nothing wrong with the use of the term borderline. Opponents of this term argue that the terms used to describe persons suffering from this disorder, such as demanding, treatment resistant, and difficult among others, are discriminatory. These terms may create a negative feeling of health professionals towards patients, an aspect that may lead to adoption of negative responses that may trigger self-destructive behavior (Giesen-Bloo et al, 2006). The fact however, is that the term borderline has been misunderstood and misused so much that any attempt to redefine it is pointless leaving scrapping the term as the only option.
Dysfunctional is defined as, “abnormal or unhealthy interpersonal behavior or interaction within a group” ("Dysfunction”). The effects of dysfunctional families can greatly impact the children in the family. How the children display the effects can vary. In The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, the Lisbon sisters are forced to obey their strict Catholic parents, which eventually leads them to take their own lives. In The Perks of Being a Wallflower directed by Stephen Chbosky, Charlie believes he is the reason why his aunt died, which causes him to isolate himself from others so he won’t hurt anyone else. In both these works, the main characters isolate themselves as a result of their dysfunctional families, which can be seen through the
The central characters in both “The Yellow Wallpaper” and A Doll’s House are fully aware of their niche in society. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator’s husband believes her illness to be a slight depression, and although she states "personally, I disagree with their ideas,” she knows she must acquiesce their requests anyway (Gilman 1). She says, “What is one to do?” (Gilman 1) The narrator continues to follow her husband’s ideals, although she knows them to be incorrect. She feels trapped in her relationship with her husband, as she has no free will and must stay in the nursery all day. She projects these feelings of entrapment onto the yellow wallpaper. She sees a complex and frustrating pattern, and hidden in the pattern are herself and othe...
Such as the ethical standards of the mental health professional in the reading. Many of the times the therapist made many decisions that would raise concern to individuals on his focus. Such as allowing clients to live with him and his family for “intense therapy” In addition the therapist never made any type of calls to child protective services based on the conditions the main character had to live thru. In addition, the main character’s mother had many mental issues and they didn’t seem to be addressed. The parent was directed towards discovering herself. She did identify some core reasons why she was unhappy in her marriage, including her sexual orientation. Many of the questions that came to mind where based around the adult figures in the child’s
Throughout history, gender identity and sexuality has been few of the many issues’ people face around the world. Some may identify as having a different gender identity than the one they were given at birth while others may not. People that are attracted to the same gender as themselves are viewed as an outsider. In Fun Home, Bechdel demonstrates what people face in order to discover freedom and self-expression. The graphic novel begins the first scene with the protagonist, (Alison) and her father (Bruce) playing “airplane”; she connects her relationship with her father as the Greek mythology of Icarus and Daedalus. Her story is mainly focused on her parents, mainly her father. Alison discovers that she is attracted to women and comes out at
The next most pivotal stage in Susanna Kaysen’s hero’s journey is the call to adventure. This is when she first admits herself into McLean mental hospital. This introduction to a new world and and environment is a transition that is not easy for Susanna. Ultimately, the choice was hers to enroll to the mental hospital, but she was heavily encouraged by her psychologist to go. “‘I’ve got a bed for you,’ he said. “It’ll be a rest. Just for a couple weeks, okay?’” (Kaysen 8). Susanna agrees to go at the end of the week, on Friday, but he immediately he snaps back with “No. You go now,” (8). The
The history of BPD can be traced back to 1938 when Adolph Stern first described the symptoms of the disorder as neither being psychotic nor psychoneurotic; hence, the term ‘borderline’ was introduced (National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, 2009, p. 15). Then in 1960, Otto Kernberg coined the term ‘borderline personality organization’ to describe persistent patterns of behavior and functioning consisting of instability, and distressed psychological self-organization (National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, 2009, p. 15).
There has been no change in the diagnostic criteria from the DSM-IV to the DSM-5 with regards to diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder. Borderline personality disorder is defined by the American Psychiatric Association in the DSM-5 (2013) as “a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts” (Borderline Personality Disorder). There are nine criteria listed in the DSM-5 (2013) that are utilized as indicators that the individual meets the diagnostic definition of BPD. The individual must meet a minimum of five of the criteria
Salters-Pedneault, Kristalyn, PhD. "The BPD Family." About.com Borderline Personality. N.p., 30 Apr. 2013. Web. 02 Mar. 2014.
Adolescence: a transition from children to adults, a time that we learn about ourselves, develop a sense of self and gain control of our emotions. However, individuals that are not able to associate with their feelings and build their self-esteem can be diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Borderline Personality Disorder is a mental illness that can be found in a number of adolescents and they are more likely to suffer from unstable identity, instability of emotions and fear of abandonment than adolescents without BPD. Also, it affects other aspect of individual 's life such as relationships with others, and decision making because of their impulsiveness and instability. However, BPD is a treatable psychological disorder, through