designs. These provided lots of lift but meant the fighters were very
unstable in the air. Skilled pilots could land them safely but there was
a high rate of attrition from crashes. In the air the more unstable
plane - the one that could turn quicker in a dogfight - was an
advantage. Been able to jink and weave better than the enemy was a big
advantage for pilots who could control maintain control of the plane.
As time progressed speed became important and aerodynamics developed as
a science. The advent of the jet engine meant much more stable designs
that weren't designed to dogfight in the conventional sense. Eventually
a electronic technology and computerised fly-by-wire systems were
introduced. Plane designers were limited by the problems of unstable
designs. A plane like the B-2 stealth bomber simply couldn't fly without
computer assistance.
The very latest tighter jets are designed to be unstable. The
instability gives the same advantages as it did for early fighter jet
pilots. A plane like the Eurofighter can only fly with the advanced
electronic systems making microadjustments that keep it in flight.
So what's this got to do with emotional lability? The term means
emotional instability. I think implicitly the term means ability to
control these but the expicit one is moods that can change rapidly. This
is a sign of many mental illnesses and can cause social disability.
People who have this in an extreme and pathological form are usually
given mood stabilisers that remove their emotional range and lability.
That's standard psychiatric practice anyway. There's another way to deal
with. People can learn to manage themselves. They can learn to control
and use the asset of dynamic mood. In the creative industry this mood
lability may be an asset but it is often a burden in the corporate
environment. Corporations commonly still value emotionless automotons
above emotionally charged, passionate mentally ill people. At least
those who haven't learned to control and hide their emotional being.
Many would prefer a person with emotions take medication to remove the
unwanted ones but they lose the value of the individual. I haven't read
the research but I can guess that creativity and emotional lability go
hand in hand, and in an ideas-based economy creativity is the new capital.
A quote I saw outside an eatery in London expresses this better than the
ramble about fighter jets.
"Electricity is controlled lightning."
(I do love good quotes!)
I don't know if this sort of therapeutic tool has been developed yet
though. Psychiatry looks for the easiest and cheapest option. Health
economics dictates cheap options and the measures of quality of life in
mental health are poor. Charities such as the Manic Depression
Fellowship run self-management courses and other small, voluntary sector
organisations may also offer similar courses. I hope these organisations
each people with the label of emotional lability that it's an asset and
that it can be useful.
Perhaps this is my old entrepreneurial mindset that still burns in my
heart. Psychiatry sees challenges like emotional lability as challenges.
I want to see them as opportunities and when I'm more positive about my
own self I can see how the thing they call an illness is my greatest
asset. It wrecks my life, my relationships and my career but it gives me
more to give.
I'm still on the journey of turning my illness and pathology into an
asset and a usable one that can overcome the barriers of stigma and
living in a time when having strong emotions isn't valued and times of
madness are considered illness rather than human...
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