What if she might actually be “bad, not mad”? Borrowed from a description of Lord Byron (“mad, bad and dangerous to know”), this is somewhat clichéd shorthand for a major academic debate in my field. It is the kind of dualistic thinking we find in relation to other complex philosophical questions: for example, the well-worn nature or nurture question in mental health or discussions about sex and gender. I think such binary arguments dodge complexity and seem to be an attempt to prevent our thinking about what it takes to live together in a group, in terms of our culture, our habitat, our
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