OCD & Philosophy

I describe my method of treating OCD.

The essence of the restoration of the obsessive-compulsive’s sanity is getting him to engage reality. If his behavior is treated without addressing this alienatedness from reality, the obsessions and compulsions will simply assume new form. On the other hand, if his behavior is treated as part of a larger program of reconciling him to reality, then there will be genuine structural improvement, as opposed to the mere replacing of one set of symptoms of with another.

They are not neurotic and are therefore not held back by neurotic self-doubt (or, therefore, by any self-doubt).

The symptoms of OCD are involuntary only in a relative sense. Relative to a determination to remain within his defensive bubble of non-engagement, there is nothing much that the obsessive-compulsive can do about those symptoms. He can engage in a bit of ‘cognitive-behavioral therapy’, but the effects of such therapy will be shallow and short-lived, absent a determination on the obsessive-compulsive’s part to grow and change himself in a way that makes his OCD irrelevant. On the other, if he does choose to leave his defensive bubble and re-engage the world, then, indeed, his OCD will become irrelevant. So relative to a determination on his part to re-engage the world, the symptoms of OCD are voluntary.

So ultimately OCD is indeed voluntary, and if one sees it for the voluntary condition that it ultimate is, then the prognosis is 100% positive. But if one sees it as a garden-variety pathology, then the prognosis is negative.

A discussion of my time as a part of a multilevel marketing scheme.

There is a singularity of outlook that a therapist must have if he is to help the patient, and there is no way he can have such an outlook unless has conquered his own demons. And it seems to me that many a so-called mental health ‘expert’ is an expert only in getting through credentialing programs that are exercises in evading one’s demons and in failing to acquire just the sort of inner strength that is the corner stone of any effective analyst’s practice.

People with OCD are generally unusually intelligent, and they tend to do well on standardized tests, especially tests of reading comprehension. But OCD often makes it extraordinarily difficult for such people to read. It is here explained why this is so and how to deal with it.

OCD, though indisputably a disease, is a disease that afflicts the will itself. It is an affliction of the will. A person with osteoporosis is somebody with porous bones, not a porous will. A person with cancer is somebody with damaged cells, not with a damaged will. But somebody with OCD is somebody with a damaged will. And the only way to fix a damaged will is by exercising that will. And that is what the obsessive-compulsive must do. And if he doesn’t do that, he is quite as responsible for his condition as is a fat person who refuses to stop overeating.

People who have social anxiety don’t want to be around people. And they don’t want to be around people because they hate people.

Getting rid of OCD is hard. If a given obsessive-compulsive has a purpose in life that his OCD is preventing him from fulfilling, then he will get over his OCD. Otherwise he won’t. OCD is simply too painful to get rid of unless one really has to. And one really has to if, and for the most part only if, OCD is interfering with one’s purpose in life.