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| Do professionals always have to wear a mask? Image: kurogami.com |
I innocently posted an item on
Twitter the other day about Marsha Linehan, one of the world’s best known clinical psychologists and the
creator of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). Linehan caused a stir a
little over two years ago when she announced that she, like so many of the
people she has tried to help, had suffered from the experiences labelled as 'borderline personality disorder' (BPD). Admittedly, Twitter is a
volatile medium in which people say many things free of the restraints that a
less anonymous conversation might impose. But, even so, I was unprepared for
the vitriol with which my tweet was greeted.
Service-users responded immediately
and their views were unequivocal.
'It only took her 30 years to come
out!' complained one, while another said that surely she could have helped more
if she had revealed her own history of mental illness sooner. An attack
followed on the merits of DBT, created by Linehan with the aid of insights
provided by her own struggle.
