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Patrick McKee

Jennifer Rodrick

English 115

14 November 2018

Essay 3: Maria’s Undiagnosed Mental Disorder

In “Play as It Lays”, it describes the everyday interactions of Maria and everyday

characters. Every chapter of the book, focuses on new characters and relationships that Maria

engages in. Maria does seem to have a problem, however, she has a tendency to constantly seek

out the things that hurt her, even though she personally seems to seek out because she craves the

attention of other people. When she was at New York, when she was younger, she became more

distant from her family and more distant to herself. Maria has Borderline Personality Disorder

since she always seems to have an Identity disturbance, frantic efforts to avoid abandonment

from Carter and other people she is with, and impulsivity in potentially self-damaging behaviors

like using sleep drugs or other dangerous things.

Maria has a problem with abandonment, since she always does everything to not lose

Kate, or lose Carter. According to the DSM-5, which is created by the American Psychiatric

Association, mentions that the abandonment issues are tied to the intimate relationship one is in,

and it has a negative influence on the relationship. Maria constantly makes relationships that are

all for the most part toxic. The problem is Maria wants to avoid being alone, and abandoned by

people. This ties into the idea that Maria has Borderline Personality Disorder, due to her constant

want for a toxic relationship, that would cause more harm to her then good. In the book, Maria

constantly got in new relationships since she is always used in each one. She first goes to Ivan,
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then to Carter, then to Les, and in the end all of them end the same way, toxic and abusive. I

believe Maria does not want these relationships, but she decides to anyway, betraying her own

words. Maria does a lot of surprising things, for an example, she enjoyed watching Helene get

beaten by BZ. Even though she despised it, she still surrounded herself with people who allow

that behavior. It is strange that she would continue, but it is because she has Borderline

Personality Disorder, and she does not know what she really wants inside to fill her constant

emptiness.

Maria always has a tendency to have an identity disturbance. She always goes around and

contradicts the things she says. She also has a tendency to lack empathy, for an example would

be her mom’s death, she never showed any emotion towards it. According to an article by Susan

Whitbourne, a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts, made the article,

Identity in Borderline Personality Disorder: A New Approach, said, “investigating the so-called

“normal” pathways of adolescent development, it has yet to be applied to the disturbed identity

processes that characterize borderline personality disorder. Yet, the theory would seem to have a

great deal of potential for understanding the issues that face people with this disorder as they

attempt to come to grips with their own self-definition after having arrived at adolescence with

what are undoubtedly unique challenges” (Whitbourne). This quote talks about the formation of

the adolescent identity and it describes the issues of the process in discovering the Borderline

Personality Disorder’s character traits. The theory described in the quote was created by Erik

Erikson, and it is defined by identity-achievement vs. Identity diffusion. In some ways, we can

see these things in Maria, since she always wavers between her own identity, she is defiantly

disturbed. This is also reinforced by the last part of the study, it gives a list of questions and a

point system to determine what identity trait they have. After analyzing each question in terms to
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have Maria feels about things, I came up with a score of 21. This means that Maria’s identity is

disturbed, therefore she has one of the other traits of Borderline Personality Disorder.

Maria did engage in pretty toxic behaviors, since she would do things that could possibly

harm her own body, or mind. For an example, she would use sleep drugs, and she would always

back away from her own words, she contradicts them. Not only this, Maria did encourage

dangerous behavior, when Helene was being slapped by BZ. According to an Article by

Kristalyn Salters, a psychologist in private practice and works for the University of Connecticut,

Said,” people with BPD are more likely to be violent in their relationships. First, people with

BPD are often victims of violence themselves, such as through child abuse. While it's not true for

all people, many people with BPD may have learned to use aggression to deal with strong

emotions because adults modeled that behavior for them when they were young. In addition,

people with BPD often experience an unstable sense of self and difficulty trusting others in

interpersonal relationships. They may experience very strong emotions if they believe they are

being rejected or abandoned.” (Salters). This article claimed that aggression in Borderline

Personality Individuals are present, whenever they feel threatened or if they feel abandoned. This

can be present primarily in most people with Borderline Personality Disorder. The article also

says that some of the Borderline Personality Disorder individuals may never get violent in their

life, but the ones that begin to show violent tendencies, more than likely will become violent and

aggressive. The article also says that not only do some of them can exhibit violent tendencies,

however, they also have a strong difficult with impulsive behavior, when experiencing a strong

and difficult emotion, like the feelings of being rejected. The article then says, that both parties

must get therapy, to continue any form of relationship, or the relationship will be toxic. Then, we

go back to Maria. In the story, Maria engages in all kinds of toxic and unhealthy relationship,
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even though she is not the aggressor, she continues to allow that behavior to go on. This only

solidifies that her relationship choices are not healthy, she seeks out these individuals constantly,

but when she does, they end up being extremely similar to Carter, or Ivan Costello. Maria

defiantly hates the feelings of being abandoned and rejected, since she always tries to get away

from her current relationship with Carter, possibly as an escape to the toxicity, but still ends up in

an even more toxic situation. This article does add on some extra information to help prove that

Maria has Borderline Personality Disorder.

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Work Cited:

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5. American Psychiatric

Association, 2013.

Salters, Kristalyn. “Is There a Prevalence of Violence With Borderline Personality?” Verywell

Mind, Dotdash, 20 Aug. 2018, www.verywellmind.com/borderline-personality-and-

violence-425192.

Whitbourne, Susan Krauss. “Identity in Borderline Personality Disorder: A New Approach.”

Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fulfillment-

any-age/201802/identity-in-borderline-personality-disorder-new-approach.