The
obsessive compulsive disorder
(OCD) is a mental disorder usually based on symptoms derived from the presence of obsessionsand compulsions.
Both obsessions and compulsions can be the most varied, strange, and sometimes exaggerated, but nevertheless the patient, even knowing this, suffers equally from their continuous intrusiveness and the moods (anxiety, agitation) they produce.
The disease has been the subject of a number of clinical studies but also some consideration of aspects of cultural identity and the influence of these aspects on the disease.
Opinions vary, some currents of thought do not believe that culture could have an influence on this disorder, while others believe that societies in which there is a consistent level of religious morality may be fertile ground for the establishment of the disorder.
In practice, there are two conceptual orientations: a front that considers obsessive disorder a consequence of a culture that has lost control over society’s educational mechanisms and control of ideas, another front tending to view the disease in the context of more articulated and complex systems, based on neurobiology, and the many mind-body processes.
A few studies along these lines were more directed toward geophysically assessing the different cultural patterns by which the disorder was viewed and also the people who were affected by it.
While in orient the DOC was viewed with an attitude of condemnation with respect to the person affected, believed to be negative and fragile in personality, an orientation prevailed in the Western world that was more inclined to view the person with the disorder as a patient affected by a more complex psychiatric condition with a strong psychosocial component.
As long as new studies, both clinical and socio-cultural, can better frame obsessive compulsive disorder, it will be important, both medically and culturally and socially, to examine the many mechanisms that may contribute to the formation of a potentially disease-prone personality,
starting from the pediatric age, the different settings of the child’s education, family and social sphere.
This may allow for a closer analysis of clinical facts, but also to understand more about what factors may predispose or influence subjects toward the disease.
