1. Social Performance and Secret Ritual: Battling Against Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
- Author
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Brooks, Catherine Francis
- Subjects
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MENTAL health services , *PSYCHOTHERAPY methodology , *COMPULSIVE behavior , *HELP-seeking behavior , *OBSESSIVE-compulsive disorder , *MEDICAL self-examination , *ETHNOLOGY research , *NARRATIVES , *PSYCHOLOGICAL factors - Abstract
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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2011
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