Heard mentality

The Depp-Heard defamation trial has put the spotlight on borderline personality disorder.

- Marc Wilson

Amber Heard.

Most of my exposure to the tragic spectacle of the Depp-Heard defamation trial comes from salacious sound bites distilled into the 6pm news. My ears pricked up, as I cooked dinner, over-reporting that a Johnny Depp-contracted psychologist had diagnosed Amber Heard with borderline personality disorder, or BPD. Assuming it's valid, how horrible would it be to have that professional opinion outed in a courtroom in front of cameras?

I first learnt about personality disorders when I was a much younger person, studying what used to be called "abnormal psychology" but is now transitioning to less-stigmatizing labels. When we were introduced to the DSM-IV system of diagnosing and categorizing mental distress back then, it was divided into five "axes". Each of these axes included different "disorders" based on different kinds of information. Axis I was for clinical disorders - the things we traditionally thought of as mental illness, including the likes of depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and eating disorders.