Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Analysis

Understanding Obsessive Compulsive Disorder from the Psychoanalytical Approach to Personality

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Obsessive compulsive disorder affects “1% of the adult United States population” (OCD Among Adults). This is a prevalent disorder that alters the lives of so many, and so drastically. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by “an overwhelming urge to repeat certain rituals or behaviors called compulsions” (When Unwanted). These compulsions can be akin to “repeatedly bathing, showering or washing hands… need for order, symmetry or exactness”( Obsessive Compulsive). If the compulsions are not gratified the person then feels a sense of uneasiness, worry, or even fear. This disorder runs
When one is bon they are instilled with one main personality character; the id. The id resides in the unconscious part of one’s mind. It is the part of one’s personality that is in charge of the impulses, selfish nature, and unrealistic thoughts that every human has. Later on through development by the age of two one would gain the ego character. The ego is the decision maker it takes the impulses of the id and makes them into acceptable behavior,. However if the id wins the argument there is no repercussion till one is five years old and obtains the super ego. The Super ego is the character who understands what is socially acceptable and what is not. With all three the ego can work more effectively, it can take the impulses from the Id and what is socially acceptable and turn that impulse into an acceptable behavior. The personality characters and the stages of development play a key role in how the psychoanalytic theory explains Obsessive Compulsive
The id is seen as a key issue to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder seeing how it is a disorder that acts upon unconscious impulses. The id is what controls impulses, and sends them to the ego. In normal people the ego has full reign over the decision making, but someone with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder it appears that the id has full control, and there is no check to see if these impulses are socially acceptable and/or reasonable. The id could easily force Obsessive Compulsive Disorder patients to explain the unreasonable tendencies they have, such as having to open and close a door five times before walking through it. Freud might explain that obsession as having been from when he was a child maybe his parents always forced him to open and close the doors for them. For the tendencies like to have count an object, Freud would used the unconscious mind. In reality we all count everything we see, but it resides in the unconscious mind, we never actively try to retrieve that information, so we never realize we were counting. This is different for a person with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder they are forced to bring that information for the recesses of their unconscious mind and bring it to their conscious. He could say the reason this is done due to a childhood experience, maybe as a child one was forced to count grains of rice or count to a certain number to get out of