Borderline Personality Disorder In Othello

Shakespeare's Othello recounts an almost universal story: a man believes his wife to be cheating on him, he responds passionately, and tragedy ensues. Similarly, the titular Othello finds himself manipulated by Iago, his closest advisor, into believing his lieutenant Cassio, is sleeping with Desdemona, Othello's wife. However, something about Othello instantly accepting Iago's lies as truth seems off. Even from a cursory examination of the play, anyone can see Othello obviously harbors deep abandonment issues and self-loathing. Just as Shakespeare's character Julius Caesar suffers from what was referred to as a "fever of fits," now known to be an early description of epilepsy, it is entirely possible that Othello's behavior, which was simply
Instead, he fully idealizes or demonizes them, a defense mechanism psychologists refer to as splitting. According to the DSM-IV, the go-to manual for psychological diagnostics, one of the symptoms for someone with BPD is, "a pattern of unstable... relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation." Nowhere is this better exemplified than Othello's relationship with both Iago and Desdemona. For example, the Moor, before the play's start, has already developed an obsession and unhealthy idealization of Desdemona. In fact, by way of greeting his beloved, Othello declares, "It gives me wonder great as my content / To see you here before me. Oh soul's joy!... / If I were now to die, / 'Twere now to be most happy, for I fear / My soul hath not another content so absolute" (2.1.187-94). At first glance, this euphoric statement may blend together with the many other romantic exaggerations prevalent in Shakespeare's work. However, the gist of what Othello tells his wife is incredibly dark: he wishes to die at that moment,