Opinion | I’m bipolar, and seeing the word in headlines on a divided world living with the menace of nuclear war does not help
- Psychiatrists appropriating a political term to ‘better’ describe manic depression only muddied our condition with images of global relations falling apart
- Maybe it’s time to choose a new word for ‘bipolar’, one that doesn’t inadvertently cause discomfort and disconnect for already stigmatised groups
“Bipolar” being misused as a lazy adjective never fails to grab my attention, by provoking a sudden mood swing. A recent South China Morning Post op-ed about the threat of “A Bipolar World Re-Emerging” went on to equate bipolar with “the spectre of a nuclear attack”. Which is a coincidence, because, when I read it, it did push my nuclear button.
It’s the mental image of a headline writer with unlimited vocabulary crafting those words for bombshell impact with no consideration of who gets caught in the collateral damage. I pictured him spinning around in his swivel chair, spilling the dregs of his tepid coffee, before cracking his knuckles and feeling a deep sense of peace that he’d chosen the perfect metaphor. Which is totally cracked because the journalist was using the term correctly.
In the mercurial world of international relations, “bipolarity” emerged during the Cold War as a way of describing geopolitical power shifts. Bipolar disorder as a medical term only came into use in … the same era (1980), when psychiatrists agreed to do away with the term “manic depressive”, concerned the word “manic” often led to patients being described as “maniacs”, “a label fraught with stigma and judgment”.
Seriously? Are you telling me psychiatrists, with all those letters after their names, couldn’t just make a new word up?! This was the best word they could come up with to redefine a mood disorder they themselves recognised as being “fraught with stigma and judgment”? Frankly, I’d rather be a simple “maniac” than have my condition muddled with “the spectre of a nuclear attack”.
I’m sure cuddly Cold War shrinks never intended to denigrate those of us who live in our bipolar worlds by muddying our condition with screaming headlines and cartoons of world leaders threatening the world with nuclear obliteration, adding fuel to the misconception that “bipolar” is dangerous and something we should all be afraid of; Reds hiding under the bed. So, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and suggest this was just their idea of witty wordplay. (I also suggest we arbitrarily do away with the term “psychiatrists” and replace it with “psychopaths”.)