Faced with no measurable biological markers to diagnose mental and emotional disorders, professionals must rely on observations of patients’ affect to determine treatment. This process constitutes an act of clinical performance criticism that simultaneously hails the patient into a predetermined role while undermining the patient's ability to act autonomously outside a clinical framework. In this article, I draw on my experiences as both a woman and bipolar patient to explore how my identity has been constructed and challenged by the language of the clinic. In doing so, I seek to challenge normative neurological assumptions present in performative understandings of mental health.
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