# Mentally ill or just neurotic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 12, 2017, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mentally-ill-or-just-neurotic/776964 "2017-01-12T16:49:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mentally-ill-or-just-neurotic/776964/21 "2017-01-13T17:38:24Z")
> [@CC](#): > > Thin line, I suppose. An acquaintance named Diane seems to consider herself as a character in her own life. It’s peculiar to me. For instance, she’ll say, “I was walking past the store and I said, ‘Diane,’ why don’t you go in a buy something?” Or she’ll be talking about a decision she made and she’ll stop to insert, “Look at me, I’m making an excuse for deciding to go downtown.” These are just narrative techniques, not really even illeism and certainly not an example of mental illness. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mentally-ill-or-just-neurotic/776964/22 "2017-01-13T17:51:22Z")
A lot of people are focusing on the woman’s use of her own name, but not only was that NOT what (I think) the OP was bothered by, since it had nothing to do with the second example, there is a big difference between referring to yourself in the third person (“George is getting angry!”) and talking to yourself in the second person (“You can do this, Alan Smithee! Now get out there and post like that message board has never seen!”). Of course, what Diane did in the OP was _describe_ talking to herself in the second person (“I said, ‘Diane, why don’t you go in and buy something?’”) which is both more removed from the self and more focused on the self than most conversation. I think most of us have internal monologues going a lot of the time, but we don’t usually share it with others. When I was a kid, I went through a period when I would sort of narrate my own day in my head like it was a book. Whenever I said something I’d mentally add _…said Alan_ after it. Once at the dinner table I did it out loud by mistake. I turned to my mother and said something like, “Please pass the mashed potatoes, Alan said.” I was really embarrassed, but everyone else acted like it didn’t happen. It took me a long time to realize that kids say weird shit all the time and parents just learn to ignore it. At the time I thought I must have imagined that I’d said it and was going crazy, or _everyone_ did that all the time and so they hadn’t noticed that I’d said it out loud because they said the same thing in their heads. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mentally-ill-or-just-neurotic/776964/23 "2017-01-13T18:00:32Z")
The superb [Forest of Rhetoric](http://rhetoric.byu.edu) site is matched only by the poverty of its referencing. URLs go to the home page only, and I think their search engine is also on the fritz. Be that as it may… > [@RickJay](#): > > These are just narrative techniques, not really even illeism and certainly not an example of mental illness. Yes. Rhetorically, imitation: aka impersonatio/ethopoeia/prosopopoeia: here, self imitation: Impersonation or Personification is “an imitation of the ethos [character] of a person chosen to be portrayed.” It is comparable to the modern “dramatic monologue.” Like the encomium, the subject could be an historical, legendary, or fictitious character. Unlike any exercise so far, as an “imitation” the impersonation was dramatic in form, employing dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mentally-ill-or-just-neurotic/776964/24 "2017-01-13T18:10:49Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > …“You can do this, Alan Smithee! Now get out there and post like that message board has never seen!”… Better than those movies you aren’t proud of. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mentally-ill-or-just-neurotic/776964/25 "2017-01-13T18:22:42Z")
I was just a few days back listening to an NPR interview with Jeff Bridges, who said, whenever he gets down on himself he tells himself, “Well, that’s just like your opinion, man.” ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mentally-ill-or-just-neurotic/776964/26 "2017-01-13T18:24:42Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Better than those movies you aren’t proud of. The joke in my head when I chose my username almost 18 years ago (My SDMB persona is almost old enough to vote! :eek: ) was that I was really some other poster, but these posts we’re so bad, that person didn’t want to take credit for them. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mentally-ill-or-just-neurotic/776964/27 "2017-01-13T19:53:12Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > “Mongo just pawn in game of life.” Now _who_ can argue with _that_? ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mentally-ill-or-just-neurotic/776964/28 "2017-01-14T00:18:49Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > “Mongo just pawn in game of life.” “[Mongo?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4634QwiPBs) [Santa Maria!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcwIpcs1BR8)” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mentally-ill-or-just-neurotic/776964.md?page=1)