DAMAGE: chapters 1-14

The character in this book lived his life obeying by "the rules" all his life in which he had been rewarded for in doing so. He became a success doctor, married a beautiful woman, and watched his two children live healthy to adulthood. But by living this life he had a lot of questions that went unasked for many years. Since he tired to be a good husband, a good father and a good son, he wonders if he chose to live his childhood a different way. He grew up knowning that will is the solution to all life's problems. That people search for love in the place of their birth or search for the imprint of another. And that the basic instinct of mankind is greed.

Lolita: Vladimir Nabokov

Humbert talks about how there are two kinds of visual memory. One when you skillfully recreate an image in the laboratory of your mind, with your eyes open, and the other when you instantly evoke, with your closed. Humbert states that he does not have a picture of Annabel that was memorable as he does of Lolita. Humbert also discusses about a nymphet. This a particular type of girl that he is drawn to and she is between the agesvod nine and fourteen. He describes this type of love by making references to historical and cultural events of romance and marriages between adolocent girls and older men. Thus the older guy is under the nymphet's spell. In order for the magic to work there must be a gap of sereval years between the underage girl and the older men, generally ten years apart.

Tennov:Love and Limerence

This passage by Tennov defines limerence as a magical or supernatural force. And it could also be described as "love at first sight." Limerence is mental activity, an interpretation of events. "The moment" you recognize your limerent object, the object of your passionate desire, the experience is utterly unlike anything else you felt before. Limerence is not just sexual attraction because sex is adequate to satisfy the limerent need. It is a desire for more than sex. "Limerence may begin as a barely perceptible feeling of increased interest in a particular person but one which if nurtured by appropriate conditions can grow to enormous intensity." (Pg. 23) The limerent object could have some sort of magic to change your lifestyle. Limerence at 100 percent may be ecstasy or it may change positive to negative at any level of intensity.

Chapter 6: obsessive sex and love.

Does obsession and sex really link to one another? Well in this short reading that throughout history, at points it was consider to have sex everyday "normal" by society while on the other hand scientist define sex as if you had a certain disease. Society noted that sex is not really an obsession but an attraction to a single person. Now a person who was sexually addictive, stalking, or doing acts of sexual homicide was mad passion. Mad passion leads to irresponsibility, addiction, even murders and madness. But furthermore, there is a obsession to frequency that you have sex. Such as the number of partners, number of orgasms within a number of hours or days or frequency of masturbation. If you perform such activites you are obsessed because these activities takes up hours or days of psychic and physical time. In the past from ancients to the mid- eighteenth century sex was known as erotomania, raving love. A somatic disease of inflamed and congested genitals leading to disorder fantasy. Then the identity of sex was known as nymphomaniacs, men's genitals were abnormal.

"The Possession" by Ernaux

This book, when you first read it, gives you a clear understanding of what the woman possess, a guy who she had loved. In the second paragraph the woman said "The first thing i did after waking up was grab his penis," this gesture, in other words, shows what she possess and shows territory she claims that no other woman have. But the woman has broken off her relationship with her lover. After doing this she soon became preoccupied and possessed by the thought of the woman who has taken her place. Not being able obtain information from the man, ex-lover, she becomes obsessed with uncovering the identity of his new lover.

Chapter 3: specialization as monomania

This chapter explains in depth how scientists are labeled monomanics. Scientist today, compared to one's in the past, are just as obsessive with their work. But at the same time they may not want to think about their work all the time. Instead, since thinking on a single thing could produce monomania, that notion of that obsession may led to madness. Madness was viewed as "normal" because obsessive behaviors that could lead to madness could at the same time lead to science.

Cbapter 2: The Emergence of Obsession

After reading this chapter, i learned that monomania was the first diagnosis specifically defining what we call today obsession. Monomania was defined as a preoccupation with single idea, passion, or train of thought that was obvious and knkwable while at the same time irresistible. Monomaniacs are aware of the wrongness or inappropriateness of some aspect of their behavior, but they are unable to stop a particular train of thought or action. Compared to OCD, people with obsessions realize that what they are doing is not normal, but they cannot seem to control themselves. This type of disease was connected to people who were civilized. "This is a disease of people with large, active brains." (Pg. 72) Monomania was thus seen as a lifestyle. But this disease greatly confused the mind, body, and soul.

Obsessions: Chapter 1

Based on reading this chapter, I can better understand why "obsession," as we call it today, is a perfect example of disease entity. Today the definition of the word obsession means an unhealthy and compulsive preoccupation with something or someone, but centuries ago it was defined other ways. And therefore got modified over centuries to better understand it and treat it. For example, the earliest use of the word "obsession" had to do with war then soon came to be used in describing demonic possession. The Renaissance culture accepted the demonic possession/ obsession model. In this time of age, to cure someone of their "demonic obsession behavior" involved an act of renouncing the devil and prayer. This treatment involved exorcism. Then in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, what replaced or modified the understanding of obsession as a demonic explanation was the nervous system. Based on a incident on February 15, 1787, people in group's were obsessed in which they were driven to act and be aware of their actions, but were unable to stop. Today we will now call this mass hysteria. People believed that to cure this disease was methodically shocking every patient with a electrical machine. From then until now we learned and changed the meaning of obsession to better understand it.

The Freud Reader: Peter Gay

The patient that Freud analyzes is Dr. Loernz, also known as "Rat Man." The reason Freud gives him this name is because of an obsession fear he has of a story he heard involving criminals being punished Pots were being turned upside down on the buttocks of the criminal and the rats in the pot bore their way into the criminals anus. Rat man also has a fear of his father dying and of a lady that is in his life who turns out to be his cousin. He wants to slit his own throat. "Rat Man" also seems to have premonitory dreams. For example, he dreamt of going to a child's funeral and sometime after the child died.

Chapter 8: OCD: Now and forever

OCD is one of the top mental disorders today. OCD was seen as a rare disease before the 70's. Now it is estimated that 2 or 3 out of a hundred people have it. An explanation for the increased numbers is media exposure. People see it and may identify with certain behavior. Researchers are trying to determine if OCD is a disease. Some researchers think that it is a structural and chemical disorder so it cannot be a disease. While researchers claim that OCD is found the world over, it in fact is not true. OCD does not exist in Taiwan. Certain research indicates a genetic basis for a predisposition to OCD. Analyses of hapolotypes has found correalation between specific genes and the likelihood of having OCD.

"Diagnosing OCD," by Osborn.

This chapter really goes in depth how to diagnose obsessive- compulsive disorder. OCD is diagnosed when obsessions and compulsions interfere significantly in a person's life. According to the general public, such as magazines and television, OCD has been diagnosed when a person thinks and carries a negative connotation, labeling them as an obsessional. But, the term "obsession" has a totally different meaning for mental health professionals. Obsessions are recurrent and persistent thoughts that are experienced as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress. I agree with the mental health professionals because "obsession" is not a person who thinks a negative connotation, instead it is a endless, continous thought that might not be there all the time but it comes back from time to time and often effects the mental process.
The nature of complusions popularity is used to indicate anything done to excess but it is a repetition act that is performed according to rules that must be applied rigidly. Basically it is one that stresses the close relationship between compulsions and obsessions. What's interesting is that in the long run compulsions can only make obsession worse. Compulsions can be divided into two groups: behavorial and mental issues. For example, in the case of Howard Hughes, Hughes was a well known productive and successful person who passion was all about narcotics. But Hughes life was dominated by compulsions. He was afraid to eat, drink, or even be touched. So he wrote pages of memos for his staff on inconsequential items. Hughes germ obsessions drove him to hoarding whatever might contamination. This goes to prove how severe obsessions, along with compulsions, can be.

"Napoleon Bonaparte to Josephine Bonaparte."

Napoleon, the writter of this letter, can be seen as an obsessional. I argue that he was not one for the simple fact the word obsession means a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling. The keyword in this definition is unreasonable. The reason Napoleon showed so much emotion and anger in this letter is that he is fighting in a war while his wife, Josephine, is back at home not writing to him to at least show that she misses or love him. And when she does write to him, according to the letter, Josephine titled him "vous," the formal wat to say "you." Napoleon felt disrespected because it created distance between them, he preferred to be called by "tu," the informal way. Thus by being called "vous" he didn't feel like a husband, he felt no love from her. Napoleon is not obsessed with her, instead he wants to know the reason why Josephine had a change of heart towards him.