A Brief History of OCD

What Is OCD?

OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as it is clinically known as is an anxiety disorder. It is characterized by obsessive thoughts and inability to restrain these thoughts. In order to counterbalance these thoughts, OCD sufferers often execute certain compulsive actions that become incorporated as a significant part of their daily lives. The compulsions are an attempt to ease the pain of the recurring thoughts.

The Origin Of OCD

OCD as a disorder has been affecting lives for very many years. However, it has only been in recently that OCD has been given the due attention it requires. Newer methods of therapy and medicinal treatments are being researched and implemented to help people with OCD lead healthier and more prouctive lives. Alternative methods of treatment are being explored and all these developments are helping mankind progress. However, to truly find a solution to a problem we also need to learn about its origins. To move forward in a field we first need to trace its roots. Therefore, we go back to the beginning of the disease’s origin.

300 Years Ago

A medical condition akin to OCD has been recognized for almost 300 years. It has been widely accepted that each stage in the history of OCD has been influenced by the cerebral, scientific and artistic changes of that age. At the beginning of the malady’s analysis a lot of significance was attributed to supernatural factors. People ascribed the cause of illnesses to distorted religious faith and blasphemous thoughts. Such occurrences were considered to be the work of Satan. Even in today’s day and age, despite all the scientific development taking place, there are many people who tend to believe in supernatural forces. Such beliefs have no basis in science yet there are still firm believers. Superstitious ideas such as these often make people do drastic and useless things such as consulting “magic men” and exorcists.

Psychoanalysis Becomes More Acceptable

In 19^th century France, a fundamental position was accorded to distrust and vacillation. It was assumed that disorders were born out of flaws in the individual’s character such as lack of courage of conviction which gave rise to varying instabilities. With the dawn of the 20^th century greater importance started being given to psychoanalysis of OCD. According to such theories, OCD arose out of a person’s inability to adapt to certain conflicts in the earlier stages of their lives. Freud was of the opinion that underlying psychological conflicts between the id ego’s need for immediate gratification, mostly in sexual spheres, and a person’s moral conscience and a need for reality. The basic underlying assumption of this theory is that when a person has to fight with his internal self, in order to control certain unacceptable urges and behave in a socially appropriate manner, these conflicts give rise to a number of mental stresses and burdens. Hence, out of these complexities, the disorder is born.

Even though psychoanalysis was a popular theory it was confronted with strong opposition in the late 20^th century. The theory was criticized for not being able to explain the role of the brain in the arena of psychological imbalances. Even though the part of the mind has been clarified in great detail, there have been no concrete studies or researches explaining the working of the brain in such contexts.