While the biomedical explanatory model for OCD appears to represent an adequate outline of a disorderly state, cultural ambiguity nonetheless pervades, wherein

ritualised behaviour is not indicative of the disorder unless it exceeds cultural norms (American Psychiatric Association, 2003). The cultural ambiguity circumscribing obsessions and compulsions gives rise to viewing this psychiatric category as a construct of cultural knowledge and symptoms as viable expressions of a reflexive agency. As Tafarodi (2008: 31) states, “culture provides the symbolic tools by which individuals carve out the awareness of their subjectivity.” To illustrate, there is a distinct continuity between a person with OCD who cannot escape the urge to wash their …show more content…
Before the 19th century, the term ‘madness’ was used to describe abnormal patterns of behaviour, wherein many cultures attributed madness to supernatural activity or an imbalance of energy. However, since the conception of OCD as a distinct, treatable illness, interpretation of the illness has ranged from attributing the phenomenon to environmental causes such as psychological stress to genetic, evolutionary, neuroscientific, and psychopharmacological explanations (Abramowitz & Houts, 2005). While Western treatment practices have ranged from detaining patients within mental hospitals to distributing antipsychotic medications. Barrett (1996) noted that negative connotations of medicalisation have been “characteristically displaced back in time to the ‘bad old days’” (p. 34), wherein positive attributions have been located in future goals. However, OCD still survives as a poorly understood illness, wherein our current treatment practices could be one day looked upon as erroneous.
The aforementioned separation of mentally ordered and disordered persons in Western cultural life draws attention to the fact the term ‘obsessive-compulsive’, while usually understood to refer to a disorder, in actual usage refers to a type of person. Recognising the term ‘obsessive-compulsive’ as an anomalous category of …show more content…
Von Peter (2013:49) argues that “the term ‘chronicity’ is able to create types of ‘chronic’ beings.” He further discussed how “identities emerge from and are sustained by social relationships, allowing individuals to see themselves as apart from the imagined... perceptions of others” (von Peter 2013:49). The impact of such discrimination was summarised as “a reciprocal escalation by which every one of the individual’s traits is blanketed by the stigma, affecting the person’s entire presentation and attitudes in turn” (von Peter 2013:49). For example, Fennel & Liberato (2007) discussed the relationship between cultural interpretations of OCD and stigmatisation, whereby societal conceptions were suggested to influence how behaviour is evaluated as problematic by the individual, thus producing a situation where many sufferers hide their symptoms.
However, ritual processes observed in different cultural contexts have long been suggested to provide stable frameworks of cultural symbols and meanings that enable people to make sense of experiences that may seem abnormal. For example, Okasha (2004) explored the impact of religion upon the management of OCD in Egypt. To elaborate, Moslems, of whom constitute approximately 90% of the Egyptian population,

ritualised behaviour is not indicative of the disorder unless it exceeds cultural norms (American Psychiatric Association, 2003). The cultural ambiguity circumscribing obsessions and compulsions gives rise to viewing this psychiatric category as a construct of cultural knowledge and symptoms as viable expressions of a reflexive agency. As Tafarodi (2008: 31) states, “culture provides the symbolic tools by which individuals carve out the awareness of their subjectivity.” To illustrate, there is a distinct continuity between a person with OCD who cannot escape the urge to wash their …show more content…
Before the 19th century, the term ‘madness’ was used to describe abnormal patterns of behaviour, wherein many cultures attributed madness to supernatural activity or an imbalance of energy. However, since the conception of OCD as a distinct, treatable illness, interpretation of the illness has ranged from attributing the phenomenon to environmental causes such as psychological stress to genetic, evolutionary, neuroscientific, and psychopharmacological explanations (Abramowitz & Houts, 2005). While Western treatment practices have ranged from detaining patients within mental hospitals to distributing antipsychotic medications. Barrett (1996) noted that negative connotations of medicalisation have been “characteristically displaced back in time to the ‘bad old days’” (p. 34), wherein positive attributions have been located in future goals. However, OCD still survives as a poorly understood illness, wherein our current treatment practices could be one day looked upon as erroneous.
The aforementioned separation of mentally ordered and disordered persons in Western cultural life draws attention to the fact the term ‘obsessive-compulsive’, while usually understood to refer to a disorder, in actual usage refers to a type of person. Recognising the term ‘obsessive-compulsive’ as an anomalous category of …show more content…
Von Peter (2013:49) argues that “the term ‘chronicity’ is able to create types of ‘chronic’ beings.” He further discussed how “identities emerge from and are sustained by social relationships, allowing individuals to see themselves as apart from the imagined... perceptions of others” (von Peter 2013:49). The impact of such discrimination was summarised as “a reciprocal escalation by which every one of the individual’s traits is blanketed by the stigma, affecting the person’s entire presentation and attitudes in turn” (von Peter 2013:49). For example, Fennel & Liberato (2007) discussed the relationship between cultural interpretations of OCD and stigmatisation, whereby societal conceptions were suggested to influence how behaviour is evaluated as problematic by the individual, thus producing a situation where many sufferers hide their symptoms.
However, ritual processes observed in different cultural contexts have long been suggested to provide stable frameworks of cultural symbols and meanings that enable people to make sense of experiences that may seem abnormal. For example, Okasha (2004) explored the impact of religion upon the management of OCD in Egypt. To elaborate, Moslems, of whom constitute approximately 90% of the Egyptian population,