I’ve always liked the idea of using a continuum or a spectrum when looking at human characteristics. Extravert or intravert? Strong or weak? Feminine or masculine? Gay or straight? Scorpio or Taurus? We love categorising people because it helps us to understand people better (at least that’s what we imagine). But when you get down to it, most of us belong somewhere along the spectrum rather at one polar end or the other.
Studying psychology, I was fascinated by the (often arbitrary) edges assigned to ‘conditions’. Score 10 or above on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depressive Scale and you should ‘see a health professional’. Score under 10 and you are fine, apparently.
I just did the test and scored a 10. So I went back and did it again, perhaps ‘faking good’ for a few of the answers, and scored an 8. Phew! No problems! So do I have ‘postnatal depression’? The answer, clearly to me now than ever, is that I lie within the murky edge.
The same is even more true for medicine. I had my cholesterol measured and it was just under the danger level. The doctor’s response? Oh, you’re fine… Just keep checking it regularly. Instead of… Hang on a sec, you are right on the edge there. Treat yourself as though you have high cholesterol for a few months/years and see if you can reduce it away from the danger zone. Surely that would have been a more sensible approach (which is what I’ve been doing since).
But measuring things can be very useful, so how do we balance our need to categorise things with the looseness and murkiness of the human condition? I certainly don’t know the answer to that question.
Myself, I’ll simply try to be more content to live within the murky edge of things.