Psychology Book Report

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The Boy who couldn’t stop Washing written by DR. Judith Rapoport, published by Penguin books in 1989, containing 292 pages, deals with obsessive compulsive disorder. Dr. Rapoport is a psychiatrist who specializes in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). In this, book she reveals new drug treatments, new methods in diagnosis and behaviorist therapies. This is done through the study of her patients and their disorders. Rapoport has revealed this secret disease and hopes to bring and understanding about it to all that may suffer from it and to anyone who may want to be informed. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about OCD. It may help those who face this disease everyday of their lives, and make them realize they are not alone. Also will aid in those who do not know much about this disease and give them and understanding and be aware that it surrounds us.

There are many interesting quotes and advice given in this book; five statements stood out that I felt are worthwhile.
“Most Psychiatrists don’t use the word “crazy'; but that’s exactly how to talk about it with an obsessive-compulsives. Since they are so sane in every other way, you must agree with and understand how upset they are by how crazy it all is'; (pg. 6). This stood out to me and made me realize many things. Many who would look at people with OCD would think they are crazy, but in fact they are as normal in a sense as anyone of us is but they suffer from a problem. We all suffer from some kind of problem but not to this degree, so when people label them as crazy it is wrong as yet they are saner than many of us.
“Whether you know it or not you know someone with this disease';(pg. 115)
After finishing this book I realized that this is somewhat true. This is a disease that has been kept a secret, and those that suffer from it keep it a hidden. It is embarrassing and those that suffer from this wish not to be identified. It has become a ritual to the person; they feel if they admit that they suffer from this that they will be labeled as “crazy'; when if fact they are not. One of our family members may have it or friends, we never know, and that’s the amazing thing because we might be able to help them but they are not willing to be open about it.

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