Evaluating the Borderline Personality: A Study of Identity and Narrative Voice

241 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007.Analyzing the relationship between reality and narrative descriptions of it reveals the premium placed on individuals' ability to produce coherent autobiographical narratives. Those lacking this ability, or those producing narratives that defy cultural norms often become labeled as pathological. Re-examining the relationship between narratives and reality challenges existing foundations upon which standards of normalcy become determined. Examining the film Thirteen from the perspectives of the visual and the plot narratives demonstrates ways in which the film challenges prevailing cultural definitions of normalcy. Doing so also provides insight into the ways in which the concept of reality itself has been used as a normalizing device to perpetuate the exclusion of individuals marked as pathological. The very concept of reality therefore becomes exposed as a normalizing device. Acknowledging it as such provides a way to challenge existing definitions of normalcy and its exclusionary effects on individuals who have been marked as pathological within our culture.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD