By Damon Young, Illustration: Damon Young, The Washington Post, March 21, 2022
I think that maybe what scares me about Kanye West — what maybe compels me to attempt to make sense of what appears to be a hyper-public manic episode — is what scares me about me.
“I don’t want to be thrown away,” said Bassey Ikpi, author of “I’m Telling the Truth but I’m Lying,” a memoir about her bipolar disorder, during a conversation last month. “I see Kanye and realize how easily that could be me.” And I think that’s it.
Bipolar disorder, as Ikpi explained, can be ugly in a way that many other mental illnesses just ain’t. “There is a respectability politic with mental health. You’re only allowed to have a mental illness in public if it makes you sad or makes people feel bad for you. You’re only allowed to have a mental illness in public if people already like you.” She continued, “I will concede that Kanye is an a--hole. But what we’re seeing isn’t regular a--hole behavior. This is an a--hole in an extended manic episode. This doesn’t excuse his behavior. But it does give a reason for it.”
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