"Bright, Beautiful, and Deeply Troubled"
Victoria Martin
January 1, 1997
Unless a pastor or counselor understands the nature of borderline personality disorder and takes concrete steps to establish safeguards, difficulty or even disaster may follow.
—Victoria Martin Linda was the divorced wife of a Presbyterian pastor. She was bright, articulate, and charming. Inwardly, though, she was filled with a paralyzing sense of confusion, emptiness, and need. Having dallied in a number of promiscuous relationships, she had yet to sate her emotional hunger. One morning after Sunday school, she approached Jim Smith, a counselor in our church-related center, about her problem. That week they met for an initial psychological evaluation, during which he first suspected the nature of Linda's problem. His suspicions were confirmed when a short time later she handed him a two-page sonnet she composed in his honor entitled Gantos for Counsel. Here, with her permission, is a portion of her poetic idealization of Jim, whom she had known for less than two weeks: OBSESSION
I discover my addiction to the hypnotic drug you've infused my needy spirit. No plant, no flower, no chemist could proffer an opiate more pure. You care. You accept. I need not do anything to earn or curry favor. With you I am that child of God; I am somebody; I am all of myself—past, present, yet-to-be—the little girl-self in one chair, the nurturing mother/woman-self in the other, joined/bonded by my trust in you. I am reverent before this Grace. TEMPTATION
... Notice the effusive praise and alluring seductiveness—two traits of one of the most difficult of all emotional illnesses to treat: borderline personality disorder (BPD). Unless a pastor or counselor understands the nature of this problem and takes concrete steps to establish safeguards, difficulty ...
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