Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

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Introduction

I want to write about obsessive-compulsive disorder because it is a very important thing in the life of humans that is present and that sometimes it is not taken care of or the people don't really know a lot about it. And when it is present people don't know what it is happening with the person provoking the ritual and then the question from the observer comes and commentaries are maid without really knowing the truth of what really is happening.

In this essay I will include the relation with anthropology and the disorder. The striking similarities between the form and content of normal ritual and the ritualistic behavior of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

How is a normal ritual a basic necessary component of human cultural behavior, and how this normal cultural behavior can change into a disorder.

I will include the explanation of OCD, and how it can be cured the history behind this and how it is present in this days. All this answers come from an extensive research of professional people that is treating this and have maid professional pages about this behavior, so I will try to put it in the most understandable words possible.

The anthropology of Ritual

Most people know a ritual when they see one. This includes a formalized behavior, that is a sequence of actions usually repeated, that often have a religious or solemn content, this actions are made to achieve something needed by the person provoking the rituals.

These kinds of actions are useful and informative to the anthropologist, who is trying to characterize a group of people by its social behavior. All this information has become an important source in the work of an ethnographer.

In addition to the above ideas, ritual actions most often take great depth on social meaning, and typically are performed in a need, desire or intent to be a part of a group.

So in the explanation of what is a ritual it can be defined as a formal behavior for occasions not performed very often for our normal routines, having reference to beliefs in mystical beings or powers.

The problems with some rituals are that if it is not on symbolism it is not highly, visible and therefore, very hard to interpret, this can be a secular ritual.

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