Sigmund Freud
Freud’s essay talks about the similarity between religious rituals, which he refers to as “ceremonials,” and the acts done by people who suffer from obsessive disorders. I personally think that Freud is reaching with this analysis. He is suggests that the similarities that the two share is more than cooincindence; more specifically that they are branches of the same root.
I know people that have varying degrees of OCD, and when I first read this, my thought was that it was outrageous. Obviously, my first thoughts where of someone tapping every parking meter they walk by versus a priest preparing the Host. With such staunch differences between reason, action, motive, etc., I found it had to buy what Freud was selling.
He goes on to speak about how in terms of the person’s personal nature, an obsessive practice can in fact be religious to that person. Something is gained (in the OCD affected person’s mind) that requires the carryout of a given “ritual,” and therefore is similar to religious ritual, because those also are carried out for a specific gain.
I think that this is a strech. While I think it is true that there are similarities between the two types of ritual, I do not think that there is a connection between the two of them. And I would question the religious value of the rituals that are deemed obsessive. From my understanding of the illness, the person in question has little to no control over his/her obsessive rituals; nor an understanding of why he/she is doing whatever it is he/she is doing. Freud does address this in his essay stating that even though they themselves do nopt understand, that does not mean that there is not a historical reason, that is to say an event that triggered the ritual at some point in the individual’s past.
I feel as though that explanation is far to theoretical, and relies on the accuracy of Dr. Freud’s assessment, which is not something that can be readily relied on. So, while I do see that there are similarities in terms of what the definition of a ritual is, I think that the difference between an OCD ritual and a religious ritual lies in the religious quality of that ritual.
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