Obsessional Neurosis, the Paranoid-Schizoid Position, and the Bourgeois Family in Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle

The article discusses the problem of isolation and draws a parallel between two different approaches to it - Michel Foucault’s archeology of power and Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis. Foucault’s perspective is exemplified by his critique of the strategies of power as they were applied to the epidemics of leprosy and bubonic plague. For leprosy there was an undifferentiated exclusionary space, while the the plague brought about a segmented space for confinement. The passage from the one strategy to the other marks the development of the disciplinary model of power: leper colonies are transformed into prisons and psychiatric wards. Freud’s approach is examined in his treatment of the Rat Man, the patient whose analysis prompted Freud to formulate his theory of obsessional neurosis, or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The article emphasizes the relevance of the problem of OCD to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. The traditional strategy of power applied to leprosy was isolation by means of exile from towns, while for the plague isolation meant shutting towns down with their inhabitants each in their own place as if imprisoned. COVID-19 brought about a new strategy of self-isolation which entails creating physical and psychological barriers together with social distancing. Obsessional neurosis is evolving from an individual pathology into a kind of collective one: epidemiology influences mentality. In conclusion, the article takes up two literary examples - Roman Mikhailov’s text “The Wrong Side of a Rat,” and Varlam Shalamov’s story “Lepers,” from the Kolyma Stories collection - in which breaking out of isolation, disease and infection are presented as alternative affective experiences.

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Mood State and the Ritualistic Behaviour of Obsessional Patients

The British Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1192/bjp.115.528.1261 ◽

1969 ◽

Vol 115 (528) ◽

pp. 1261-1268 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

Valerie J. Walker ◽

H. R. Beech

Keyword(s):

Mood State ◽

Theoretical Models ◽

The Third ◽

Obsessional Neurosis

The aim of the present study was to examine more closely than has previously been done some widely accepted generalizations about the ritualistic behaviour of patients suffering from obsessional neurosis. Observation of such patients had suggested that their behaviour is less consistent and is governed by a much greater complexity of factors than is normally assumed. In addition it seemed that such over-simplification has led to the construction of inadequate theoretical models to explain ritualistic behaviour. Moreover it appeared that this over-simplification was linked to the fact that there have been very few systematic studies of the obsessional ritual itself: most descriptions of obsessionals' behaviour seem to be based on the retrospective and rather general accounts, given by the patients themselves in the relative calm and detachment of the consulting-room situation. Observation of patients actually performing rituals suggested that such accounts might well be misleading. Therefore, it seemed likely that it would be profitable to study the rituals of individual obsessional patients systematically and in some detail. In the investigation reported here, three such studies were carried out. The first two, which are reported briefly, were relatively uncontrolled and had as their aim the derivation of more specific hypotheses to be tested in a later investigation. The third study, which is reported more fully, was concerned with testing out these hypotheses by the more rigorous investigation and manipulation of the rituals of a further obsessional patient.

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