In the article, “Individuals with borderline personality disorder are not who you think,” the author, Breanna Jones, offers her firsthand experience as to why borderline personality disorder needs to be destigmatized. Jones was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and suffered from suicidal thoughts, self harm, and the inability to regulate her emotions. She notes that some professionals in the field react negatively due to the stigma surrounding the disorder. She believes the stigma is rooted in the lack of knowledge people have about bpd. With more information spread about bpd she believes that stigma will lessen and allow people with bpd a much better environment to heal in.
Jones uses many rhetorical appeals within her article. The first noticeable use of rhetorical appeal is in the first line where she writes, “...I had not told the public about my borderline personality disorder diagnosis and my struggles with suicidal ideation, self-harm and loneliness.” This is an example of the rhetorical appeal pathos, which is when words or a sentence produce an emotional effect. In this instance, she is using strong words with emotional appeal to them such as “self-harm,” “loneliness,” and “suicidal” in order to make the audience feel sad and sympathetic for her. Additionally, this sentence also appeals to ethos since she admits to have borderline personality disorder, giving her credibility and making her a more reliable source. The next example of a rhetorical appeal in the text is when she brings up this research statistic, “...found that at least 70% of those with BPD will attempt suicide at least once in their lifetime and at least 10% will complete suicide.” This sentence appeals to logos, the appeal to logic, due to the statistics listed.
I enjoyed your post and it has been interesting learning about bpd through this and your previous blog posts. One thing I would note is that this post seemed empty of emotion, flat and passive, for example the last sentence: "This sentence appeals to logos, the appeal to logic, due to the statistics listed." This reads like an empty fact, and could perhaps better be written as "This statement not only uses logos in its appeal, but also uses pathos, showing the heartbreaking death toll of those with bpd." I hope my advice is useful, and look forward to learning more about bpd!
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