MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Within disability studies, “impairment is conceptualised as a cognitive, sensory or psychological difference that is defined often within a medical context, while disability is understood as the negative social reaction to those differences” (Goodley 9). By this definition, borderline personality disorder functions as both a psychological impairment and a socially defined disability. According to Dr. Avarim, Dr. Brodsky, and Dr. Stanley in their article “Borderline Personality Disorder, Stigma, and Treatment” in the Harvard Review of Psychiatry, “Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is often viewed in negative terms by mental health practitioners and the public. The disorder may have a stigma associated with it that goes beyond those associated with other mental illnesses.” Research already suggests that “a lack of understanding of depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)—as well as frequent disparaging references to mentally ill individuals in film, television, and newspapers—encourage young adults to “other” those with psychological difficulties” (Richmond 19). Young adult novels that confront the stigma of mental illnesses are becoming more common, but those that confront borderline personality disorder are still rare. Maggie Stiefvater’s young adult series The Raven Cycle presents a unique challenge to disability readings and representations, particularly of borderline personality disorder, as two of the main characters fulfill the diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder, although neither character is confirmed to have the personality disorder. This paper will explore the way in which these characters fulfill the expectations of people with borderline personality disorder, subvert expectations of people with borderline personality disorder, and the way in which acknowledgment of these characters’ disability could benefit the stigma surrounding the disorder.