"Those diagnosed with personality disorder are manipulative. This is a fact. At least, you would think it was a fact if you heard it as many times as I have coming from the mouths of people in the caring professions. Whenever I’m doing training on personality disorder, there is rarely a session where this fact isn’t voiced at some point. When it does come out, it isn’t spoken in a timid, tentative way, but with the full throated confidence of someone speaking a truth universally acknowledged. It is a fact as certain as death and taxes, and because people are so assured that it is a fact, the presence of a service user with a diagnosis of personality disorder in the room does nothing to encourage them to censor their views.
I’m going to spend some time thinking about manipulation, what we might mean by it and whether this is another way of interpreting behaviour in a way that might help carers keep caring."
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