Graduation Term
2024
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Committee Chair
Jason Reblando
Abstract
With Love & Rage: A Self Portrait of Borderline Personality Disorder analyses how I use the act of taking self portraits to materialize emotions through photographic means. When I experience intense emotions symptomatic of borderline personality disorder, positive or negative, their onset is routinely sudden and overwhelming; what follows is an impulsive desire to photograph myself to archive the present before the emotions shift or return to stable levels.The Rage images document the emotional aftermath of a sexual assault and rape; anger and depression, by using a red-scale film to emphasize both confrontational and dissociated body language. The Love images record a state of hypersexuality that is subdued through how I use the camera to frame the images, resulting in a reclamation of agency over my body and sexuality in a positive way. This thesis examines both series of images, born from my lived experiences, through a clinical understanding of borderline personality disorder and artistic research into self portraiture and agency.
Access Type
Thesis-Open Access
Recommended Citation
Eckstine, Sarah, "With Love & Rage: a Self Portrait of Borderline Personality Disorder" (2024). Theses and Dissertations. 1903.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/1903
DOI
https://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2024.20240618063948764390.999975