Obsessive-compulsive Personality. Difference From Other Personality Types

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Perhaps the Japanese and Germans can be classified as an obsessive-compulsive nation: discipline, dedication, severity, love of order, responsibility, workaholism, perfectionism.

The Japanese have a particularly acute sense of civic and social duty.

Obsessive-compulsive personalities are people who think logically and love to use their minds to solve practical problems, including in order to minimize costs, losses, and increase productivity. It was the Japanese who developed the lean manufacturing technology, which is now being introduced in our country.

The Japanese have a strong sense of social guilt due to public censure for laziness and irresponsibility. For example, one Japanese girl committed suicide when her employer criticized her for being late and threatened to fire her. Losing a job is a collapse for an obsessive-compulsive person, since her self-esteem is associated precisely with professional self-realization and being in demand, with the fulfillment of social duty.

There are known samurai who took their lives if their honor was tarnished.

In Germany, for example, a temporarily unemployed person is very ashamed of this, and therefore carefully hides it until he finds another job.

Obsessive-compulsive personalities in childhood were often controlled, punished, made them order, organized, shamed, and guilty for disobedience.

Guilt was formed from childhood as a result of criticism for neglect of duty (to parents, school), shame - as a result of punishment for masturbation, through attitudes that "no one will be friends with you if you do not study well", through comparison with others, organization could be "hammered" by punishments for disorder, indiscipline, and absent-mindedness.

Often, hyperresponsibility is formed in people who, by their children, were forced to play the role of a rescuer for their dependent parents.

For many men, including in Russia, an obsessive type of thinking is characteristic - an appeal to logic, facts and isolation from their sensual part, neglect of the sensual side of life. Sensuality is perceived by many Russian men as a manifestation of weakness, femininity.

Obsessive-compulsive personalities can be divided into two types: thinking (obsessive) and doing (compulsive). It is not uncommon for them to coexist.

Obsessive individuals are more inclined towards intellectual work, they are able to generate brilliant ideas, analyze, but they can show inconsistency in organizing something, in everyday matters (this is very typical for scientists, creative people). Compulsive people, on the contrary, think little, but they are highly organized, collected, they love scrupulous work (accountant, packer, picker, clerk, secretary).

The personality may not be obsessive-compulsive, but may contain obsessive and / or compulsive traits. Many people tend to overeat, ritualize when performing any actions, including alcoholism, gambling addiction, sexual adventures and other repetitive thought activities.

A distinctive feature of obsessive-compulsive personalities is philosophizing even on the most insignificant reason, scrupulousness in relation to moral requirements, presentation of high standards to oneself and others.

Because the obsessive-compulsive person seeks to produce positive effects on those around her, she often has to contain her anger. Unkind feelings towards an annoying interlocutor can manifest covertly, in the form of passive aggression (for example, to show superiority in an intellectual dispute, by comparing the interlocutor with some standard, through a polite indication of his imperfection, error).

It is very difficult for an obsessive-compulsive person to show spontaneity in actions, in the expression of feelings. If such a person is asked how he feels, he will answer that he thinks, and does not feel. Many people with an obsessive-compulsive nature very rarely cry and in general it is difficult for them to show emotions, to be spontaneous, which is why they have a great tendency to psychosomatics.

They are only capable of becoming furious if the other greatly hurts their self-esteem.

A case from practice: the wife systematically "sawed" her husband, he endured the products of her scandalous disposition, but as soon as the wife called her husband a rogue and that he earns little, the husband became furious to such an extent that he beat his wife. After this act, he was tormented by a feeling of guilt for a long time and for a month he did the cleaning in the apartment, washed the clothes, gave his wife gifts.

The main psychological defenses of obsessive-compulsive individuals: intellectualization, rationalization, moralizing, compartmentalization, destruction of what has been done, reactive education.

In order not to hurt about their own feelings, such people translate feelings into thinking, constantly subject the sensory sphere to intellectual analysis, innovation they can explain their mistake (having become a victim of swindlers, such a person can reassure himself with a logical reasoning why it happened and what he learned from this useful, but the feeling of guilt for the mistake still haunts him for a long time afterwards).

Moralizing may manifest itself in a tendency to instruct others. Through moralizing, a person stimulates himself to adhere to the framework of morality and go in the direction set by morality.

An obsessive-compulsively organized person always looks like an exemplary citizen of society, almost ideal in everyday life. However, his soul also has its own "chest with secrets". When there is a breakdown of defenses, an obsessive-compulsive person can afford what he reasonably condemned and did not allow himself (drunkenness, overeating, casual sexual intercourse, abuse of computer games, etc.).

Psychological protection compartmentalization allows two polar attitudes to coexist in the soul of an obsessive-compulsive personality (a policy of double standards: in society and at home, he can vehemently condemn prostitution and obscenity, but, in the company of friends and colleagues who encourage such behavior, he can grossly violate his own standards: drinking, swearing, watching porn and making easy connections). A tendency to double standards in a person is formed as a result of drills in childhood, when a child with his parents did what was expected of him, and behind his back - what he wants.

Also, with a wife whom he does not like, such a person can behave kindly, for example, but an observant person will notice in his eyes the arrows of "evil" directed at her when she does not see it. Thus, one can observe one person and her completely opposite shadow, which manifests itself in such a way that no significant person would know about her.

Another defense - destruction of what has been done, takes effect when such a person begins to feel guilty for his unfriendly feelings and, as a result, try to please, give gifts, somehow make amends for this guilt.

Reactive education manifests itself in the substitution of one feeling for the exact opposite (the unconscious desire to afford sexual intrigues and debauchery is externally expressed in puritanism and ardent exposure of such a way of life).

The obsessive-compulsive person likes to concentrate on details, because it allows you to get away from other disturbing thoughts. So, for example, a lawyer will have great pleasure in a detailed study of legislation and looking for various loopholes in it.

An obsessive-compulsive personality due to an orientation towards the approval of others, towards one's own success, perfectionism is often confused with a narcissistic one. However, the obsessive-compulsive personality does not have a sense of inner emptiness, empathy and conscientiousness are present. The narcissist is ruled by his own selfishness, while the obsessive-compulsive person is sensitive about his moral duty.

The obsessive-compulsive is characterized by features of moral masochism., and therefore such personalities can be confused with masochistic. The masochistic personality also deals with suppressed anger. But she turns this anger against herself by provoking another into conflict and receiving punishment, which reduces the painfulness of the experience. In an obsessive-compulsive personality, self-punishing behavior is not so pronounced, the feeling of guilt is redeemed by the destruction of what has been done, rationalization, workaholism and other socially approved actions. The psychological defenses of the obsessive-compulsive personality can be called more mature.

Obsessive-compulsive personality can be mistaken for paranoid due to a tendency to reason, upholding justice, suspiciousness. However, in therapy, such a person tends to cooperate with the therapist, while the paranoid remains latently hostile and distrustful for a long time.

With borderline and psychotic organization, the obsessive-compulsive personality can resemble the schizoid. I recall an episode from the movie "Aviator", when, during the breakdown of defenses, the hero of DiCaprio, billionaire Howard Hughes, fell into depression, closed in on himself and did not leave his room for a long time, if before he was clean and took care of his appearance, now grew long hair, nails, relieved need in jars and flies flew everywhere.

The schizoid personality in isolation remains productive and has a deep sensory world, tk. for her it is a natural environment, not caused by a disorder.

It is not uncommon for obsessive-compulsive individuals to resort to rituals as a way to control the uncontrollable. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, for example, admitted to the press that he is stepping over cracks in the asphalt. Apparently, he played the role of Howard Hughes so successfully because the actor himself has obsessive-compulsive behaviors. At the same time, of course, it cannot be called purely obsessive-compulsive, given the artistry of nature and the ability to deeply experience and express feelings.

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Author: Burkova Elena Viktorovna