Bipolar and Obsessive Compulsive Disorders in Literature

What do bipolar disorder and obsessive disorder have in common? They are both diseases that three authors have given to their characters in order to develop a great story. Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person's mood, energy, and ability to function. Different from the normal ups and downs that everyone goes through, the symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe. They can result in damaged relationships, poor job or school performance, and even suicide (Stoppler). Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) as an anxiety disorder. It is characterized by distressing intrusive thoughts and/or repetitive actions that interfere with the individual's daily functioning. The DSM-IV criteria for OCD are as follows: The individual expresses wither obsessions or compulsions. Obsessions are defined by the following four criteria: recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, or images are experienced at some time during the disturbance as intrusive and inappropriate and caused marked anxiety and distress. The thoughts, impulses, or images are not simply worries about real-life problems. The person attempts to suppress or ignore such thoughts, impulses, or images or to neutralize them with some other thought or action. The person recognizes that the obsessional thoughts, impulses, or images are a product of his/her own mind (not imposed from without as in thought insertion). Compulsions are defined by the following two criteria: the person feels driven to perform repetitive behaviors (e.g. hand washing, ordering, checking) or mental acts (e.g. praying, counting, repeating words silently) in response to an obsession or according to rules that must be applied rigidly. The behaviors or mental acts are aimed at preventing or reducing distress or preventing some dreaded event or situation; however, these behaviors or mental acts are either not connected in a realistic way with what they are meant to neutralize or prevent or they are clearly excessive (PsychologyToday). Tennessee Williams' character Blanche DuBois, from Streetcar Named Desire, Hamlet from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, and May from Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees all suffer from these two illnesses in their own ways like by lying and believing their lies to escape reality, lying and acting crazy to seek revenge on another character, and getting really upset by the world's problems and then start singing.

Bipolar disorder is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person's mood, energy, and ability to function.