IS OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER A PATHOLOGY OF THE HUMAN DISPOSITIONTO PERFORM SOCIALLY MEANINGFUL RITUALS - EVIDENCE OF SIMILAR CONTENT

This study investigated the theory that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a pathology of the human disposition to perform culturally me aningful social rituals. We tested the hypothesis that the same action s and thoughts that are ego-dystonic in OCD are valued when they are a ppropriately performed in socially legitimated rituals. Two coders ana lyzed ethnographic descriptions of rituals, work, and another activity in each of 52 cultures. The coders recorded the presence or absence o f 49 features of OCD and 19 features of other psychopathologies. The f eatures of OCD were more likely to be present and occurred more freque ntly in rituals than in either control; rituals also contained more di verse kinds of OCD features. The features of other psychopathologies w ere less likely to be present and were less numerous in rituals than t he features of OCD. Analysis of variance showed that OCD features disc riminate between rituals and controls better than the features of othe r psychopathologies. These results suggest that there could be a psych ological mechanism that operates normally in rituals, which can lead t o OCD when it becomes hyperactivated.