(no subject)

[danaeris]

mzrowan muses on the etymology of codependence, overfunctioning, and underfunctioning:
http://mzrowan.livejournal.com/692818.html

I personally use the term codependence in a fashion that would probably drive her batty. Of course, I wonder if she is being accepting of the concept of lingual drift in this context... I'm not saying that lingual drift has or hasn't happened, only that when a term is used differently than it was originally, sometimes that's misuse, and sometimes it's simply lingual drift.

Her definition of overfunctioning and underfunctioning, while more similar to what I use codependent to mean than what she says the original definition was, still does not encompass the whole of the meaning. It's not that codependent means too involved by my standards, as she implies. It's that there's a pattern/set of behaviours I've seen time and again in my relationships and the relationships of others that I'm trying to describe with a single word. I've heard/seen codependent used for this set of behaviours, and so I started using it. *shrug*

I'd explain that set of behaviours now, but I have to run off to run errands before therapy.

p.s. Feeling much better today, though my body seems to be not so happy with me -- something about not enough sleep and not eating right.

Comments

[freefloat.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I very much agree with her article, as I feel that the term "codependence" has become an overused, and in many cases, misused, term. Some days it seems that any happy, stable relationship in which one partner gives and the other takes, and vice versa, comes under fire for being "codependent."

Thank you for linking to her journal and the article, however.