Technology and Technicity: A Critical Analysis of Some Contemporary Models of Borderline Personality Disorder

Abstract

AbstractIn this article I discuss the philosophical writings of Bernard Stiegler, Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault concerning the concept of technology. Technology and “technicity” can be seen to be essential elements of any current culture not only in relation to material practices, but also in terms of how cultures understand and represent themselves as a collective of “individuals”. I argue that our current technological culture plays a significant role in determining how emotional problems and forms of mental illness are constituted or constructed. In particular, I focus on the widespread adoption of the concept of “borderline personality disorder”. I critically analyze how contemporary models of the treatment of this disorder form part of a contemporary cultural context in which the diagnosis and recipients of the diagnosis are actively constructed or constituted by practitioners of these models, rather than disinterestedly studied and treated by them in an objective or naturalistic sense. I draw conclusions about how a greater awareness of our “technological” cultural context can influence or improve the orientation of the psychotherapist. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.