Treat the person, not the label

I ran accross a quote from Irvin Yallom the other day that resonated with me. And so much so I featured it in a YouTube short creation. The full quote is

“What? 'Borderline patients play games'? That what you said? Ernest, you'll never be a real therapist if you think like that. That's exactly what I meant earlier when I talked about the dangers of diagnosis. There are borderlines and there are borderlines. Labels do violence to people. You can't treat the label; you have to treat the person behind the label.

Labels do violence to people. You can’t treat the label; you have to treat the person behind the label. Yes! That’s it! Labels/diagnosis are just that - labels. Who is the person behind this? What have they experienced? How are doing?

It’s the person that has the power of transformation and the privilege is to help bear witness and call that forth. All behaviors make sense in they eyes of the actor and labels will create distance. Labels create a disconnection that those in our care may already be experiencing due to a label.

Curiosity, empathy, connection are all human qualities that create a human to human experience. And taking it one step further, this connection can help the one in our care release their own attachment to labels.

People are people and we need people to grow and heal.