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[text in boxes are author notes not to be read in the video]
[intro]
Sally Bowles is a complicated character. She is the main character of Cabaret, but she is in no way a hero. Her apathy towards the political climate around her enrages many, but there is much more to her character than her ignorance. Sally Bowles, first and foremost, is a severely mentally ill young woman (or teenager, if you read Goodbye to Berlin). She struggles with many signs of disordered personality, such impulsivity, obsessive attachments, substance abuse, and extreme fear of abandonment. All of this leads me to believe Sally Bowles has what would today be diagnosed as Borderline Personality Disorder, or BPD. In this video essay I will look at the diagnostic criteria for BPD, and how it applies to Sally Bowles from the hit musical Cabaret.
[disclaimer segment]
Disclaimer: I will not be looking at every criterion for BPD, as not all of them are applicable to Sally as we see her in the musical. Instead, I will look into five criteria, which is the minimum needed for a diagnosis of BPD. The criteria I have not included here are the ones labeled in the DSM-5 as criterion 6, 8, and 9. I will link a PDF to the DSM-5 in the video description so y you can read those for yourself. You may also notice that I have swapped the order of some things here, the reason for that is simply: it made segues easier.
[main body of video]
Criterion One: “Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. (Not including suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.)”.
Sally can be seen acting irrationally at the thought of abandonment in the beginning of the second act. When Cliff and Sally argue, Sally threatens to leave. One may argue this is the opposite of avoiding abandonment, but to me this behavior is very reminiscent of my own borderline behaviors regarding “frantic efforts to avoid abandonment”. Sally lashes out at Cliff, threatening to leave. She does not, however, actually intend to act on this threat; rather she is attempting to trick Cliff into arguing for her to stay. She wants to scare Cliff and make him realize how much he wants her and therefore persuade her to stay. In Sally’s song “Maybe This Time” she also sings about how “maybe this time he’ll stay” implying past abandonment and her desperate hope that it will not happen again. All of this, to me, adds up clear example of someone who is frantically trying to avoid being abandoned by their favorite person.
Criterion Two: “A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation.”
This is possibly the most obvious of Sally’s borderline traits. Although we only see a limited amount of Sally’s relationships, from what we do see, Sally clearly has very unstable relationships. At the beginning of the show Sally references Max, saying he is only the man she is staying with “this week”. The fact that she is living with him shows an intense relationship considering they supposedly hadn’t known each other long. When Sally meets Cliff, however, she quickly begins to hate Max and devalue him (referred to as “splitting” when talking about BPD). The way Sally latches onto Cliff the moment she meets him is clearly atypical when compared to your average person’s experience with interpersonal relationships. She moves in with him within 24 hours of meeting, and acts as though she is in love with him already. Towards the end of the musical is when we see Sally “split” on Cliff. When Cliff suggests moving away from Berlin and back to his home country of America, Sally takes this as abandonment and quickly devalues, or splits on, him. The love she previously had for Cliff is now gone.
Criterion 3: “Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating). (Note: Do not include suicidal or self mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.) .
This is probably the second most obvious BPD trait that Sally shows. Her drinking habits are clearly problematic and impulsive, with her being shown to drink frequently, especially when under stress. It is also likely that, like the majority of characters in Cabaret, Sally is a recreational drug user. She acts impulsively and recklessly when it come to sex, having stated she has had several abortions, not to mention the whole, you know, moving in with a man after knowing him for 24 hours? Yeah. Her abortion at the end of the show is also a clear example of impulsivity. She has an emotional response to a situation (Cliff wanting to go back to America) and makes an immediate and very dramatic decision because of it. She had previously been excited to raise a child with Cliff; however because of her “split” she makes a rash decision without regard to her own or others feelings.
Criterion 4: Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self.
Sally states she “used to love pretending to be someone else”, she pretended to be mysterious and different before realizing she is mysterious and different. This, to me, shows an unstable sense of self. Sally did not know who she was and instead put on a mask of who she wished she could be. Eventually, this mask became who she was and her understanding of herself. While I cannot argue whether or not it is “marked and persistent” it is something.
Criterion 5: Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior.
Similarly to criterion 4, it is hard to argue whether or not the suicidal ideation Sally displays in Cabaret is “recurrent” as we as the audience only see a snippet of her life. I had previously decided to omit this criterion as I could not think of a good example of Sally behaving suicidal; however as Tumblr user “Cabaretbrainrot” kindly pointed out when reading the initial draft of this essay, there is one instance of implied suicidal ideation from Sally. This is during the musicals titular song, “Cabaret”. In this song Sally tells the story of an old girlfriend called Elsie, who is implied to have died either from suicide or an unintentional overdose. Sally also notes that in death, Elsie was the “happiest corpse” she had ever seen. During the second to last verse of the song, Sally sings the line “When I go I’m going like Elsie” implying that she intends to die by suicide or overdose, much like Elsie did, because Elsie appeared so happy once she was dead.
Criterion 6: Chronic feelings of emptiness.
For me, the song “Maybe This Time” sums this criterion up rather perfectly. The entire song is about how Sally essentially hates herself and believes nobody loves her because she is a loser. She sings about how she longs to be peaceful and happy, which she currently is not. This shows that Sally experiences, as the DSM-5 puts it, “Chronic feelings of emptiness” aka, depression.
[conclusion]
Now, with all of this being said, I obviously cannot confirm for a fact that Sally Bowles had BPD, however, I think it is a theory worthy of further research and discussion. Hopefully this video has made you think and consider the possibility that Sally Bowles is an example of a borderline coded character in media. Thank you for watching and please consider sharing this video and leaving a comment. Bye !