Social Performance and Secret Ritual: Battling Against Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

This autoethnography offers an account of my experience with mental illness and provides an analysis of the performative aspects of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD is a genetic disorder triggered by environmental stressors involving a chemical imbalance in the brain. The resulting biologica...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Qualitative health research 2011-02, Vol.21 (2), p.249-261
Main Author: Brooks, Catherine Francis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Psychological
Anthropology, Cultural - methods
Autobiography as Topic
Autoethnography
Brain
Ceremonial Behavior
Communication
Disability
Health technology assessment
Humans
Imbalance
Interpersonal Relations
Mental disorders
Mental Health
Neuroses
Obsessive compulsive disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - genetics
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - psychology
Obsessive-Compulsive neuroses
Patient Acceptance of Health Care
Qualitative Research
Rituals
Secrets
Social Identification
Social life & customs
Stress, Psychological
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Summary:This autoethnography offers an account of my experience with mental illness and provides an analysis of the performative aspects of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD is a genetic disorder triggered by environmental stressors involving a chemical imbalance in the brain. The resulting biologically altered state leaves individuals to steer themselves among and between “appropriate” performance and secret rituals. Analyzing my own communication practices through a performance lens highlights the importance of image management for people struggling with disability. In telling my own story, this article provides readers an in-depth look at OCD as a traumatic brain disorder whose sufferers rely on communicative performance to maintain their public and private identities, and as a disease that impedes social life for its sufferers. Implications of this account for those struggling with mental disability and for practitioners aiming to help them are discussed.
ISSN:1049-7323
1552-7557
DOI:10.1177/1049732310381387