Description |
v, 290 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
Contents |
Introduction. Obsession in our time -- 1. Origins of obsession -- 2. The emergence of obsession -- 3. Specialization as monomania -- 4. Never done: compulsive writing, graphomania, bibliomania -- 5. Freud and obsession as the gateway to psychoanalysis -- 6. Obsessive sex and love -- 7. Obsession and visual art -- 8. OCD: now and forever -- 9. Conclusion. So what? So what? So what? So what? and other obsessive thoughts |
Summary |
"Beginning with the roots of the disease in demonic possession and its secular successors, Lennard Davis traces the evolution of obsessive behavior from a social and religious fact of life into a medical and psychiatric problem. From obsessive aspects of professional specialization to obsessive sex and nymphomania, no variety of obsession eludes Davis's analysis. Obsession also considers the clinical definition of the condition: Davis investigates the huge increase (estimates suggest up to 600-fold) in diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder over the past thirty years. Surveying the many ways in which doctors today treat OCD, he points out the limitations of and contradictions within the biological definitions of the disease."--BOOK JACKET |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
Subject |
Obsessive-compulsive disorder -- History.
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Compulsive behavior -- History.
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Obsessive Behavior -- history.
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Compulsive Behavior -- history.
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History, Modern 1601-
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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder -- history.
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LC no. |
2008014361 |
ISBN |
9780226137827 (cloth : alk. paper) |
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0226137821 (cloth : alk. paper) |
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