Abstract
In this article, I provide a phenomenological exploration of the role played by narrativity in shaping affective experience. I start by surveying and identifying different ways in which linguistic and narrative expression contribute to structure and regulate emotions, and I then expand on these insights by taking into consideration the phenomenology of borderline personality disorder. Disruptions of narrative abilities have been shown to be central to the illness, and I argue that these disruptions are at the origin of a number of alterations of affective experience. In particular, I suggest that due to the narrative “fragmentation” characteristic of the disorder, the emotions experienced by borderline patients can be less differentiated and have a predominantly bodily and unregulated character.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 212-230 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 19 Feb 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2020 |
Bibliographical note
This article was completed during my appointment as a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow (pro-ject “The Phenomenology of Self-Esteem”—GOIPD/2016/555), and I thank the Irish Research Council for their support at the time. This article originated in the research I carried out as a PhD student at Durham University, and I thank Matthew Ratcliffe, my PhD Supervisor, and the postgraduate community in the Department of Philosophy for helpful conversations during this period. A previous version of the paper was presented at “Emotions, Normativity, and Social Life”—the San Raffaele Spring School of Philosophy held in Milan in June 2016—and I am grateful to the audience at the event for their feedback. Many thanks also to the anonymous reviewers for their commentsKeywords
- borderline personality disorder
- emotions
- narratives
- phenomenology