This song is about living with Borderline Personality Disorder, a cluster B personality disorder characterized by frequent mood swings and short, turbulent relationships.
While Swift claims this is a knock at how the media portrayed her throughout the early 2010's as her career was on the rise, the intricate details of the lyrics exhibit first-hand knowledge of a very specific mental illness, and its' most prominent symptoms.
The first verse describes how individuals with BPD often have a tendency to fall in love very quickly, and "love-bomb" their targets by aggressively pursuing them and making the relationship very intense, very quickly, as opposed to letting it develop naturally. Swift's lyrics also allude to how many of these individuals have a reputation within their social circles, and will manipulate their targets into ignoring red flags by directly addressing rumours about them and claiming others were just "jealous."
The second verse details a pattern of behavior called "mirroring", in which individuals with BPD often do not have a personality of their own, but rather "copy" their significant other's likes and interest to role-play as the perfect girlfriend for the initial stages of the relationship.
The second half of verse 2 details a symptom called "splitting", in which the individual with BPD grows tired of their significant other for no reason, and decides the S/O is evil incarnate. This often involves temper tantrums, meltdowns, and other extreme emotional outbursts which leave the guy astronomically confused. The final line refers to a concept called "narcissistic hoovering", in which guys are often baited back into these relationships by promises the woman will change. She never does.
The chorus addresses typical BPD tropes such as how the relationships often go "down in flames," a long list of exes claim the particular woman is "insane" (often proven true), how dating a woman with the disorder can provide a "high" during the initial lovebombing stage, and she runs through guys so frequently that the S/O's names are difficult to keep up with.
The breakdown refers to how these women often say, quite directly at the start of the relationship, that they have serious mental issues, and to avoid dating them. Men often don't take heed to their warnings.
For Swift to write this intricately about a mental illness, is very concerning, and I suspect this song will take on a new life in her later years, once she is out of the spotlight.
This song is about living with Borderline Personality Disorder, a cluster B personality disorder characterized by frequent mood swings and short, turbulent relationships.
While Swift claims this is a knock at how the media portrayed her throughout the early 2010's as her career was on the rise, the intricate details of the lyrics exhibit first-hand knowledge of a very specific mental illness, and its' most prominent symptoms.
The first verse describes how individuals with BPD often have a tendency to fall in love very quickly, and "love-bomb" their targets by aggressively pursuing them and making the relationship very intense, very quickly, as opposed to letting it develop naturally. Swift's lyrics also allude to how many of these individuals have a reputation within their social circles, and will manipulate their targets into ignoring red flags by directly addressing rumours about them and claiming others were just "jealous."
The second verse details a pattern of behavior called "mirroring", in which individuals with BPD often do not have a personality of their own, but rather "copy" their significant other's likes and interest to role-play as the perfect girlfriend for the initial stages of the relationship.
The second half of verse 2 details a symptom called "splitting", in which the individual with BPD grows tired of their significant other for no reason, and decides the S/O is evil incarnate. This often involves temper tantrums, meltdowns, and other extreme emotional outbursts which leave the guy astronomically confused. The final line refers to a concept called "narcissistic hoovering", in which guys are often baited back into these relationships by promises the woman will change. She never does.
The chorus addresses typical BPD tropes such as how the relationships often go "down in flames," a long list of exes claim the particular woman is "insane" (often proven true), how dating a woman with the disorder can provide a "high" during the initial lovebombing stage, and she runs through guys so frequently that the S/O's names are difficult to keep up with.
The breakdown refers to how these women often say, quite directly at the start of the relationship, that they have serious mental issues, and to avoid dating them. Men often don't take heed to their warnings.
For Swift to write this intricately about a mental illness, is very concerning, and I suspect this song will take on a new life in her later years, once she is out of the spotlight.