Essay Example 1

I'M NOT CRAZY
	One of the most difficult rhetorical positions to be in is when the author's audience is forced to question the author's entire authority on the subject based on his or her background with the subject matter . Unfortunately for Kaysen, she finds herself in this exact situation. In her essay "My Diagnosis," Kaysen sets out to explain her diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder and attempts to show that it was illegitimate. The problem with this, of course, is that her former diagnosis makes the audience call into question everything she is saying. Still, despite this difficult position, she, for the most part, manages to make a convincing argument for the illegitimacy of her diagnosis. She sets up her ethos through various stylistic elements, including her conversational tone, the juxtaposition of her own diction with the quotes she uses  from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (which will be referred to as the DSM from this point on), and her pointing out of the more questionable diagnostic criteria found in the DSM.
	While Kaysen's argument is convincing overall, there is one point in particular that she makes that is very weak, and even actively hurts her other claims, and it would be best to address this portion of the essay before moving on to where she is much more rhetorically effective. The point she makes that works against her ethos is when she mentions her former habit of "wrist-banging," a practice of self harm in which she repeatedly banged her wrist against the metal edge of her chair, as well as the "face scratching" that preceded that. Now, her honesty is laudable, but to include such a point hurts her claim that she was misdiagnosed. She points out that these behaviors are fully in line with her diagnosis, and the only thing about this that works for her case is that she does not attempt to outright disprove this point. Instead, she acknowledges that it is a large contributing factor to her diagnosis, but then sets out to subtly undermine that by rationalizing it as "counteracting feelings of numbness"  (qtd. in Kaysen 283).
	Besides this, however, the rest of the essay is quite effective. Her conversational tone aims and succeeds to set up a relationship with the reader in such a way as to gain the reader's sympathy. She uses short sentences and paragraphs throughout the essay, making it easy to digest. She also constantly makes comparisons between her behaviors and the behaviors of average teenagers in an attempt at getting the audience to relate to her situation. This attempt is for the most part successful, as she manages to quote the DSM in just a way as to showcase the more mundane features of Borderline Personality Disorder and have her audience relate to them, such as "uncertainty about several life issues, such as self-image, sexual orientation, long-term goals or career choice, types of friends or lovers to have..." (qtd. in Kaysen 283). These are things that, as Kaysen points out, any teenager can relate to, and thereby call into question the legitimacy of a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder.
	Another feature of Kaysen's essay that bolsters her ethos is the juxtaposition of her more casual diction with that of the quotes from the DSM. This sets up a relationship with the reader by making the psychological authorities of the DSM seem as if they're speaking from an ivory tower while Kaysen paints herself as relatable. This effectively garners sympathy from her audience. The prime example of this is the very beginning of the essay, which is not made from her own words, but from an excerpt from her discharge forms stating her diagnosis and the terms of her discharge. She then begins: "So these were the charges against me," immediately setting up psychological authorities as a whole as her antagonists, and herself as the relatable protagonist.
	Perhaps Kaysen's most effective point, however, is when she calls into question the sexist undertones of her diagnosis. She points out that three of the six diagnostic criteria found in the DSM are gender specific: binge eating, shoplifting, and shopping sprees. There is also the problematic criteria that is "compulsive promiscuity," which she says is, again, more biased towards women than it is towards men. Then she goes on to quote the DSM on who the disorder is more commonly diagnosed in. "The disorder is more commonly diagnosed in women." This is the fatal blow for the ethos of the DSM due to the blatant sexism of the statement, since, it implies through the language used that the disorder is not necessarily more common in women, but more commonly diagnosed by psychological medical authorities, presumably due to biases in the authorities themselves. Kaysen wisely includes this in the closing portion of her essay, which leaves her reader with the idea that the psychological authorities are not only incorrect in Kaysen's case, but incorrect in many other cases involving women as well.
	All of these formal elements together do a wonderful job of setting up Kaysen's ethos. The relationship she sets up with her audience is casual and conversational, and yet she still manages to be incredibly articulate in her points. She consistently (with the exception of the weak point regarding her self-harm) undermines the legitimacy of the diagnostic criteria found in the DSM, and even though she starts out in a very difficult position, at the end of her essay she still manages to leave the reader with the thought that the diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder is, in her case and potentially many others, illegitimate.