Obsessive-compulsive neurosis - Symptoms, Kinds, Causes, Cure

Neurotic disorders are considered to be of five kinds.

1.     Neurasthenia

2.     Anxiety neurosis

3.     Anxiety hysteria

4.     Obsessive - compulsive neurosis

5.     Hysteria

Obsessive-compulsive neurosis:

As is evident from its name in an obsessive-compulsive neurosis the patient is compelled to repeat an illegal thought of undesirable activity and despite his best efforts he cannot put it out of his mind.

Physical characteristics:

Bodily signs of this kind of neurosis are lack of appetite and sleep, the need to repeat some action etc.

Psychological characteristics:

In this, psychological symptoms are obsession, emotional tension, lack of attention, anxiety, irritability, the presence of conflicting emotions, feelings and thoughts, basic reaction etc.

Causes

1.     Frustration and transformation of sexual energy: Freud has believed sexual causes to be at the root of compulsive neurosis and are the base of all other mental disorders.

2.     According to him, whom some sexual desire is denied, fulfillment on account of the intervention of superego, then it becomes repressed, but gives rise to internal conflict.

3.     In this conflict the sexual energy of the individual is transformed so that he becomes a prey to various kinds of compulsion.

4.     Introverted personality: The fundamental cause of compulsive neurosis is an introverted personality. Since such an individual, even though intelligent is sensitive and has a sense of insecurity.

5.     It is due to this feeling of insecurity that an individual is compelled to do many things over and over again. For example he imagines he might lose money that he may be carrying and hence feels compelled to count it many times.

6.     Substitution: Some psychological sign compulsive neurosis as a kind of protective reaction in which the individual develops this disorders in order to keep out painful thoughts or actions.

7.     Mental conflict and emotional tension influence of heredity and environment habit formations are some of the factors contributing to the disease.

8.      

Cure of Obsessive-compulsive neurosis:

Psychoanalytic method, hypnotic, suggestion and shock treatment are some of the methods of curing in addition to medication.

Fugue:

One form of hysteria is known as hysteric fugue, in which the individual is compelled by a concealed impulse to run away from home and wander about for many days.

When he recovers to normal state he returns home but forgets all occurred during his fugue condition. A stage of fugue may last for any time period from a few hours to a few months and during this period; he has no recollection of his past life.

Cause:

As in the case of other mental diseases, fugue also has its root in excessive repression. If a person suffers from some serious psychological or emotional shock, then his repressed desires finds expression in the form of fugue.

Cure:

An example, a boy who has lost identity, who had run away from home for many months secured a job in a shop. He was given alcoholic drink on the occasion of some festival. When he heard the date he suddenly shouted it' s my mother' s birthday. Immediately he recollected his thoughts on home and simultaneously forget all that had happened to him after he had run away from home. From this it is evident that shock can end a condition of fugue.

Somnambulism:

This Latin term denotes walking in ones sleep. This is often found in hysteric person. Besides the hysteric person, somnambulism is a condition that can be seen in individuals who are otherwise normal. In this condition the individual comes under the influence of some feelings, memories or concepts and act upon them, while actually asleep in the manner of purpose.

Cause:

It is a condition of mental disorganization, a condition in which the individual' s complexions or sentiments are not organized and synthesized and do not find expressions in normal life. Hence they are expressed through abnormal behaviour. In this abnormal condition the distorted thoughts gain control over the individual' s normal personality and guide him into mechanical behaviour.

In such a condition the person' s ' normal life does not remain undisturbed and the primary mental organization becomes subordinated to the somnambulistic secondary mental organization. When the stroke of sleepwalking is over the individual returns to normalcy and forgets all that is confined to this condition.

Cure:

Hypnosis, psychoanalytic method, behaviour therapy are some of the methods of cure.