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Social Performance and Secret Ritual: Battling Against Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
- Source :
-
Qualitative Health Research . Feb2011, Vol. 21 Issue 2, p249-261. 13p. - Publication Year :
- 2011
-
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]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 10497323
- Volume :
- 21
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Qualitative Health Research
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 57205021
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732310381387