The OCD – religion package: might it relate to the rise of spirituality?

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)-religious ritual stereotype in the context of the growth in popularity of the concept of spirituality. Religious ritual and obsessionality were famously confabulated by Freud in 1907. The stereotype has persisted, and empirical evidence for this is examined. The development of research on spiritual experience is outlined. The growing popularity of the term “spirituality” in the psychology of religion is also considered. Individualism may encourage individual spiritual experience over organised religion involving collective ritual and practice. The view of ritual as collective, and experientially void, by comparison with individual spirituality, is still prevalent. Recent research on ritual is described and discussed, indicating the experiential, emotional and spiritual accompaniments of religious ritual. This may raise questions about any alleged causal role played by religious ritual in exacerbating OCD.

KEYWORDS:

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• religion
• ritual
• spirituality
• religious experience

Acknowledgement

This paper was heavily influenced by, and based on a paper given by the author in the University of Goteborg, Sweden, in January 2017 entitled “Was Freud right?” The author is grateful to Dr Elisabeth Punzi of the Clinical Psychology Department at the University of Goteborg for encouraging his interest in the topics discussed here. The Goteborg paper was developed into a paper given in a Symposium on OCD and Religion, at the International Association for the Psychology of Religion, Hamar, Norway, August 2017. His initial interest in OCD and religion was strongly encouraged by the 1998 paper by Professor Christopher Alan Lewis, cited in the references.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.