Dr Karen Richards (right)

Besieged by crime and desensitised to death and violence, Jamaica issuffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD). This is the diagnosis of consultant clinical psychologist Dr Karen Richards who draws parallels between the average individual who walks into her practice and a hurting nation.

 

Jamaica's symptomsSelf-harm is probably the single most defining feature of the borderline personality. Jamaica is drowning in a sea of its own violence.In 2005, Jamaica had 1,674 murders (64.10 per 100,000 people), giving the country the unenviable reputation of having the highest murder rate in the world that year. Hope was raised by a small reduction in 2007.We thought the patient (Jamaica) was on the road to recovery, but relapse was soon evident. The murder rate again rose by three per cent in 2008: Last year 1,611 Jamaicans were slain by fellow citizens.In spite of the efforts of the new government, more than 70 people were murdered within the first 20 days of the 2009. Nearly as many people have been killed in Jamaica in the last two years as in the 40 years of conflict in northern Ireland.We are not at war with another country or threatened by some external force. We are annihilating ourselves. The fact is the biggest threat to a Jamaican is another Jamaican. Jamaica, the patient The patient with BPD can sometimes be recognised by distinctive self-inflicted scars, multiple etchings carved into the skin, albeit hidden under long sleeves. These are merely outward manifestations of the chaos and self-devaluation being experienced on the inside.Neither citizen nor habitat is spared in the course of this self-destructive illness. Undoubtedly, Jamaica is by God's own hand among the most beautiful islands in the world. Yet, we deface our environment like the BPD patient defaces his or her body. Even in the most remote places, what do we see? The scourge of graffiti, the ever-rising tide of garbage and stinking gullies clogged with all manner of waste.The natural beauty of the land is punctuated by zinc fences, the mentally ill who sleep in rags by the side of the road, the shacks where vendors gut, scale and sell their wares. This is not always about poverty; sometimes it is about pride.The tourist zones are a façade, they are not representative of the real Jamaica; they are like the long sleeves worn by the patient who seeks to deceive the onlooker. But to a discerning eye, the emblems of self-defacement are evident.Boundaries and rulesThe BPD patient has difficulty maintaining order. In terms of nationhood, order is established and maintained by consensus on the boundaries and rules. But, Jamaica has a problem with lawlessness on various levels. In some instances, lawlessness is not considered to be lawlessness at all. It is repackaged as a question of freedom and the individual's right to choose.Like the borderline personality, we function in a system of extremes in which we either idealise or devalue. We have recreated the tribes along party political lines and in our blind faithfulness to the ideal, some are prepared to take up arms against fellow Jamaicans, thereby devaluing ourselves.