Obsession: A History (Hardback)
Book Details
- Publisher : University of Chicago Press
- Published : 2008
- Cover : Hardback
- Pages : 296
- Category :
Culture and Psychoanalysis - Catalogue No : 28059
- ISBN 13 : 9780226137827
- ISBN 10 : 0226137821
Reviews and Endorsements
Beginning with the roots of the disease in demonic possession and its secular successors, 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' graceful 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. Impassioned, witty, and learned, "Obsession" is for anyone - from compulsive hand washers to professional psychologists - who has been fascinated by, struggled with, or cultivated obsession.