Obsessive love disorder

Last updated

Obsessive love disorder (OLD) is a proposed[ by whom? ] condition in which one person feels an overwhelming obsessive desire to possess and protect another person, sometimes with an inability to accept failure or rejection. Symptoms include an inability to tolerate any time spent without that person, obsessive fantasies surrounding the person, and spending inordinate amounts of time seeking out, making, or looking at images of that person. [1] [2]

Contents

Characteristics

Depending on the intensity of their attraction, obsessive lovers may feel entirely unable to restrain themselves from extreme behaviors such as acts of violence toward themselves or others.[ citation needed ]

The disorder most commonly associated with obsessive love is borderline personality disorder. Other disorders that are most commonly associated with obsessive love include delusional disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other cluster B personality disorders. [3]

Psychology

Sigmund Freud considered that obsessive love might be underpinned by an unconscious feeling of hate for which it overcompensated - thereby explaining the sufferer's feeling of a need to protect the love object. [4] Later analysts saw obsessive love as driven more by narcissistic need, the preoccupation with the love-object offering defenses against worries and depressive feelings; [5] while Jungians see it as rooted in the projection of the inner self onto another person. [6]

In culture

Marcel Proust dissected (his own style of) obsessive love in À la recherche du temps perdu . [7]

Fatal Attraction shows Alex Forrest's obsessive love for Dan Gallagher after a brief affair. [8]

Bollywood films such as Darr , Anjaam , and Dastak each portray the main villains as obsessive lovers. [9]

You, a 2014 thriller novel by Caroline Kepnes, portrays obsessive love disorder. The novel was adapted into the first season of the Lifetime and Netflix television series You.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Limerence</span> Romantic love, the state of being in love, lovesickness or even love madness

Limerence is a state of mind resulting from romantic feelings for another person. It typically involves intrusive and melancholic thoughts, or tragic concerns for the object of one's affection, along with a desire for the reciprocation of one's feelings and to form a relationship with the object of love.

In psychology, an idée fixe is a preoccupation of mind believed to be firmly resistant to any attempt to modify it, a fixation. The name originates from the French idée, "idea" and fixe, "fixed."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder</span> Personality disorder involving orderliness

Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is a cluster C personality disorder marked by a spectrum of obsessions with rules, lists, schedules, and order, among other things. Symptoms are usually present by the time a person reaches adulthood, and are visible in a variety of situations. The cause of OCPD is thought to involve a combination of genetic and environmental factors, namely problems with attachment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kleptomania</span> Inability to resist the urge to steal

Kleptomania is the inability to resist the urge to steal items, usually for reasons other than personal use or financial gain. First described in 1816, kleptomania is classified in psychiatry as an impulse control disorder. Some of the main characteristics of the disorder suggest that kleptomania could be an obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder, but also share similarities with addictive and mood disorders.

Anal retentiveness is a personality trait that is characterized by excessive concern with details. The concept originated in Freudian psychoanalytic theory, where one aspect of the anal stage of psychosexual development is pleasure in the retention of feces. Fixation in this stage can potentially result in a personality marked by frugality, obstinacy and orderliness. Despite its psychoanalytic roots and the literal meaning of the words, in common usage the term generally refers merely to certain kinds of obsessive behaviour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Infatuation</span> Intense but shallow attraction

Infatuation, also known as being smitten, is the personal state of being overly driven by an uninformed or otherwise unreasonable passion, usually towards another person for whom one has developed strong romantic or sexual feelings.

A workaholic is a person who works compulsively. A workaholic experiences an inability to limit the amount of time they spend on work despite negative consequences such as damage to their relationships or health.

Scrupulosity is the pathological guilt and anxiety about moral issues. Although it can affect nonreligious people, it is usually related to religious beliefs. It is personally distressing, dysfunctional, and often accompanied by significant impairment in social functioning. It is typically conceptualized as a moral or religious form of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). The term is derived from the Latin scrupus, a sharp stone, implying a stabbing pain on the conscience. Scrupulosity was formerly called scruples in religious contexts, but the word scruple now commonly refers to a troubling of the conscience rather than to the disorder.

In psychoanalysis, egosyntonic refers to the behaviors, values, and feelings that are in harmony with or acceptable to the needs and goals of the ego, or consistent with one's ideal self-image. Egodystonic is the opposite, referring to thoughts and behaviors that are conflicting or dissonant with the needs and goals of the ego, or further, in conflict with a person's ideal self-image.

Lovesickness refers to an affliction that can produce negative feelings when deeply in love, during the absence of a loved one or when love is unrequited.

Patrick Carnes is an American proponent of the viewpoint that some sexual behavior is an addiction. According to CBS News, he popularized the term sex addiction. He created the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals (IITAP), as well as numerous addiction treatment facilities, and created the CSAT certification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-destructive behavior</span> Behaviours that are harmful to the individual engaging in them

Self-destructive behavior is any behavior that is harmful or potentially harmful towards the person who engages in the behavior.

Sexual obsessions are persistent and unrelenting thoughts about sexual activity. In the context of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), these are extremely common, and can become extremely debilitating, making the person ashamed of the symptoms and reluctant to seek help. A preoccupation with sexual matters, however, does not only occur as a symptom of OCD, they may be enjoyable in other contexts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compulsive behavior</span> Habit and impulse disorder

Compulsive behavior is defined as performing an action persistently and repetitively. Compulsive behaviors could be an attempt to make obsessions go away. Compulsive behaviors are a need to reduce apprehension caused by internal feelings a person wants to abstain from or control. A major cause of compulsive behavior is said to be obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). "Compulsive behavior is when someone keeps doing the same action because they feel like they have to, even though they know these actions do not align with their goals." There are many different types of compulsive behaviors including shopping, hoarding, eating, gambling, trichotillomania and picking skin, itching, checking, counting, washing, sex, and more. Also, there are cultural examples of compulsive behavior.

Compulsive buying disorder (CBD) is characterized by an obsession with shopping and buying behavior that causes adverse consequences. It "is experienced as a recurring, compelling and irresistible–uncontrollable urge, in acquiring goods that lack practical utility and very low cost resulting in excessive, expensive and time-consuming retail activity [that is] typically prompted by negative affectivity" and results in "gross social, personal and/or financial difficulties". Most people with CBD meet the criteria for a personality disorder. Compulsive buying can also be found among people with Parkinson's disease or frontotemporal dementia.

Primarily obsessional obsessive–compulsive disorder, also known as purely obsessional obsessive–compulsive disorder, is a lesser-known form or manifestation of OCD. It is not a diagnosis in the DSM-5. For people with primarily obsessional OCD, there are fewer observable compulsions, compared to those commonly seen with the typical form of OCD. While ritualizing and neutralizing behaviors do take place, they are mostly cognitive in nature, involving mental avoidance and excessive rumination. Primarily obsessional OCD takes the form of intrusive thoughts often of a distressing, sexual, or violent nature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Obsessive–compulsive disorder</span> Mental and behavioral disorder

Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental and behavioral disorder in which an individual has intrusive thoughts and feels the need to perform certain routines (compulsions) repeatedly to relieve the distress caused by the obsession, to the extent where it impairs general function.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Love addiction</span> Pathological passion-related behavior involving the feeling of being in love

Love addiction is a proposed model of pathological passion-related behavior involving the feeling of falling and being in love. A medical review of related behaviors in animals and humans concluded that current medical evidence does not have definitions or criteria on an addiction model for love addiction, but there are reported similarities to substance dependence, such as euphoria and desire in the stimuli, as well as anhedonia and negative levels of mood when away from the stimuli, intrusive thoughts on it, and disregard for adverse consequences. There has never been a reference to love addiction in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), a compendium of mental disorders and diagnostic criteria published by the American Psychiatric Association.

In psychology, relationship obsessive–compulsive disorder (ROCD) is a form of obsessive–compulsive disorder focusing on close and/or intimate relationships. Such obsessions can become extremely distressing and debilitating, having negative impacts on relationships functioning.

Inference-based therapy (IBT), also known as inference-based cognitive behavioral therapy (I-CBT), originated as a form of cognitive therapy developed for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder. IBT followed the observation that people with OCD often inferred danger on the basis of inverse inference. Later the model was extended to inferential confusion, where inverse inference leads to distrust of the senses and investment in remote possibility. In this model, individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder are hypothesized to put a greater emphasis on an imagined possibility than on what can be perceived with the senses, and to confuse the imagined possibility with reality. According to inference-based therapy, obsessional thinking occurs when the person replaces reality and real probabilities with imagined possibilities; the obsession is hypothesized to concern a doubt about a possible state of affairs.

References

  1. Susan Forward; Craig Buck (1 January 2002). Obsessive Love: When It Hurts Too Much to Let Go. Bantam Books. ISBN   978-0-553-38142-9.
  2. Moore JD (2006). Confusing Love with Obsession: When Being in Love Means Being in Control. Center City, MN: Hazelden Books.
  3. What Is Obsessive Love Disorder?, from BetterHelp
  4. S Freud, Case Histories II (PFL 9) p. 118-9 and p. 70-1
  5. O Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 1946) p. 382 and p. 533
  6. C Jung, Man and his Soul (London 1964) p. 191
  7. H Moss, The Magic Lantern of Marcel Proust (2012) p. 51
  8. The Fallout from 'Fatal Attraction', The Washington Post, October 16, 1987
  9. Pimprikar, Aabha; Jha, Geetanjali (Feb 2022), "Love Special - Mad in Love: Psychological Disorders" (PDF), Mind Matters (11){{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Further reading