The OCD – religion package: might it relate to the rise of spirituality?. Issue 2 (7th February 2018) - Loewenthal, Kate Miriam
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.