Obsessive-compulsive disorder and recalcitrant emotion: relocating the seat of irrationality

Abstract

It is widely agreed that obsessive-compulsive disorder involves irrationality. But where in the complex of states and processes that constitutes OCD should this irrationality be located? A pervasive assumption in both the psychiatric and philosophical literature is that the seat of irrationality is located in the obsessive thoughts characteristic of OCD. Building on a puzzle about insight into OCD (Taylor 2022), we challenge this pervasive assumption, and argue instead that the irrationality of OCD is located in the emotions that are characteristic of OCD, such as anxiety or fear. In particular, we propose to understand the irrationality of OCD as a matter of harboring recalcitrant emotions. We argue that this account not only solves the puzzle about insight, but also makes better sense of how OCD sufferers experience and describe their condition and helps explain some otherwise puzzling features of compulsive behavior.

On the roles of false belief and recalcitrant fear in anorexia nervosa

“…InSteglich-Petersen and Varga (2022), we propose a similar explanation of compulsive behavior in OCD. We take the…”

“…The literature on recalcitrant emotions has focused in large part on accounting for their irrationality (for a more detailed account, see Steglich-Petersen & Varga 2022). When it comes to this, it is important to steer clear of the problems facing both judgmentalism and alternative neojudgmentalist accounts of emotions.…”

“…But how is such insight possible if the insight targets a belief of one's own? We will bring this question into sharper focus by drawing on an analogous puzzle about insight in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) recently described by Taylor (2022) and further discussed in our own previous work, which we adapt to AN below (Steglich-Petersen & Varga, 2022).…”

Architectural styles of curiosity in global Wikipedia mobile app readership

“…More generally, curiosity has been associated with individual well-being, lower depressed mood, and greater openness to experiences [10,[29][30][31]. However, specific styles of curiosity may also be associated with depression, anxiety, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [32,33]. Moreover, curiosity can be double-edged, with high curiosity associated with behaving erroneously yet overconfidently, being less discerning of information quality, lacking intellectual humility [26], and having more addictive behavior [34].…”

“…By contrast, no such association emerges between deprivation sensitivity-a facet of curiosity associated with a motivation to seek information to overcome the feeling of being deprived of knowledge [35]-and well-being [36]. Thus, investigating the advantages and disadvantages of different styles of curious practice is key to understanding human behavior writ large [33].…”