Chapter published in:
The Language of Crisis: Metaphors, frames and discourses
Edited by Mimi Huang and Lise-Lotte Holmgreen
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 87] 2020
► pp. 281–304

Chapter 10
Framing the onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Women’s experiences of changes in the body

Despite quantitative research showing differences between obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) across genders, little research has qualitatively explored women’s experiences of the disorder. This chapter combines image schemas with illness narrative analysis to explore how women with OCD link the onset of the disorder to traumatic changes in their bodies that are experienced as a crisis. It is argued that the bodily changes disrupt the image schemas that provide stable conceptualisations of the body. The disintegration of the stable body leads to conceptualisations of OCD that, to various degrees, frame OCD as an attempt to regain control over the changed body. Thus, the women make sense of OCD onset by connecting it to personal crises and relationships within specific sociocultural contexts.
Keywords: obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD, women, onset, traumatic events, embodiment, illness narratives, image schemas, qualitative, discourse
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Moving beyond medical approaches
    • 2.1Medical definitions of mental health disorders
    • 2.2Sociocultural and individual contexts in OCD
  • 3.Cognitive linguistics, embodiment and mental health
    • 3.1Conceptual metaphor theory and OCD
    • 3.2Image schemas and OCD
  • 4.Illness narratives
  • 5.Aims
  • 6.Methods
    • 6.1Ethical approval
    • 6.2Recruitment and participants
    • 6.3Data collection
    • 6.4Data selection and analysis
  • 7.Results and discussion
    • 7.1Narrative one: Angela
    • 7.2Narrative two: Lucy
    • 7.3Narrative three: Nicola
  • 8.Conclusions
    • 8.1Conclusions for OCD
    • 8.2Conclusions for image schemas
  • References
Published online: 16 July 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.87.10kna
References
American Psychiatric Association
1994 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
2013a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5). Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2013b Highlights of Changes from DSM-IV-TR to DSM-5. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Beck, Cheryl T.
2016 “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder after Birth: a Metaphor Analysis.” The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing 41 (2): 76–83. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bury, Mike
1982 “Chronic Illness as Biographical Disruption.” Sociology of Health & Illness 4 (2): 167–182. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2001 “Illness Narratives: Fact or Fiction?” Sociology of Health & Illness 23 (3): 263–285. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Rebecca, and Robyn Longhurst
2013 “Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Gendered Metaphors, Blogs and Online Forums.” New Zealand Geographer 69 (2): 83–93. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chafe, Wallace L.
1980 “The Deployment of Consciousness in the Production of a Narrative.” In The Pear Stories: Cognitive, Cultural and Linguistic Aspects of Narrative Production, ed. by Wallace L. Chafe, 9–50. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Charteris-Black, Jonathan
2012 “Shattering the Bell Jar: Metaphor, Gender, and Depression.” Metaphor and Symbol 27 (3): 199–216. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, Rachel
2014 Diagnosing the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. London: Karnac Books.Google Scholar
Croft, William
2009 “Toward a Social Cognitive Linguistics.” In New Directions in Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Vyvyan Evans and Stéphanie Pourcel, 395–420. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cromer, Kiara R., Norman B. Schmidt, and Dennis L. Murphy
2007 “An Investigation of Traumatic Life Events and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.” Behaviour Research and Therapy 45 (7): 1683–1691. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Crowe, Marie
2000 “Constructing Normality: a Discourse Analysis of the DSM-IV.” Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 7 (1): 69–77. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, Joyce
2001 “Pregnant Pauses: Agoraphobic Embodiment and the Limits of (Im)Pregnability.” Gender, Place and Culture 8 (3): 283–297. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Lennard J.
2008 Obsession: a History. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
de Silva, Padmal, and Melanie Marks
1999 “The Role of Traumatic Experiences in the Genesis of Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder.” Behaviour Research & Therapy 37 (10): 941–951. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Vyvyan, and Melanie Green
2006 Cognitive Linguistics: an Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Fennell, Dana, and Ana S. Q. Liberato
2007 “Learning to Live with OCD: Labeling, the Self, and Stigma.” Deviant Behavior 28 (4): 305–331. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Forray, Ariadna, Mariel Focseneanu, Brian Pittman, Christopher J. McDougle, and C. Neill Epperson
2010 “Onset and Exacerbation of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period.” Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 71 (8): 1061–1068. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Frank, Arthur W.
1995 The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fullana, Miguel A., Gemma Vilagut, Sònia Rojas-Farreras, David Mataix-Cols, Ron de Graaf, Koen Demyttenaere, Josep M. Haro, Giovanni de Girolamo, Jean P. Lépine, Herbert Matschinger, and Jordi Alonso
2010 “Obsessive–Compulsive Symptom Dimensions in the General Population: Results from an Epidemiological Study in six European Countries.” Journal of Affective Disorders 124 (3): 291–299. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gee, James P.
1986 “Units in the Production of Narrative Discourse.” Discourse Processes 9 (4): 391–422. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gershuny, Beth S., Lee Baer, Holly Parker, Emily L. Gentes, Alison L. Infield, and Michael A. Jenike
2008 “Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Treatment-Resistant Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.” Depression and Anxiety 25 (1): 69–71. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hampe, Beate
2005 “When Down Is Not Bad, and Up Not Good Enough: A Usage-Based Assessment of the Plus–Minus Parameter in Image-Schema Theory.” Cognitive Linguistics 16 (1): 81–112. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hart, Christopher
2011 “Force-Interactive Patterns in Immigration Discourse: a Cognitive Linguistic Approach to CDA.” Discourse & Society 22 (3): 269–286. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Horwitz, Allan V., and Jerome C. Wakefield
2007 The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2012 All We Have To Fear: Psychiatry’s Transformation of Natural Anxieties into Mental Disorders. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hydén, Lars-Christer
1997 “Illness and Narrative.” Sociology of Health & Illness 19 (1): 48–69. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Mark
1987 The Body in the Mind: the Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination and Reason. Chicago: Chicago University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kimmel, Michael
2005 “Culture Regained: Situated and Compound Image Schemas.” In From Perception to Meaning: Image Schemas in Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Beate Hampe, 285–311. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kleinman, Arthur
1988 The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing and the Human Condition. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Knapton, Olivia
2013 “Pro-Anorexia: Extensions of Ingrained Concepts.” Discourse & Society 24 (4): 461–477. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2016a “Dynamic Conceptualizations of Threat in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).” Language and Cognition 8 (1): 1–31. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2016b “Experiences of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Activity, State and Object Episodes.” Qualitative Health Research 26 (14): 2009–2023. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Labad, Javier, Jose M. Menchón, Pino Alonso, Cinto Segalàs, Susana Jiménez, Nuria Jaurrieta, James F. Leckman, and Julio Vallejo
2008 “Gender Differences in Obsessive-Compulsive Symptom Dimensions.” Depression and Anxiety 25 (10): 832–838. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Labad, Javier, Jose M. Menchón, Pino Alonso, Cinto Segalàs, Susana Jiménez, and Julio Vallejo
2005 “Female Reproductive Cycle and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.” Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 66 (4): 428–435. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson
1999 Philosophy in the Flesh. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George
1987 Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lochner, Christine, and Dan J. Stein
2001 “Gender in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders.” Archives of Women’s Mental Health 4 (1): 19–26. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mataix-Cols, David, Sarah Wooderson, Natalia Lawrence, Michael J. Brammer, Anne Speckens, and Mary L. Phillips
2004 “Distinct Neural Correlates of Washing, Checking, and Hoarding Symptom Dimensions in Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder.” Archives of General Psychiatry 61 (6): 564–576. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Millet, Bruno, Frédéric Kochman, Thierry Gallarda, Marie O. Krebs, F. Demonfaucon, I. Barrot, Marie C. Bourdel, Jean P. Olié, Henri Loo, and Elie G. Hantouche
2004 “Phenomenological and Comorbid Features Associated in Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder: Influence of Age of Onset.” Journal of Affective Disorders 79 (1-3): 241–246. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Moulding, Richard, Guy Doron, Michael Kyrios, and Maja Nedeljkovic
2008 “Desire for Control, Sense of Control and Obsessive-Compulsive Checking: an Extension to Clinical Samples.” Journal of Anxiety Disorders 22 (8): 1472–1479. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Moulding, Richard, and Michael Kyrios
2006 “Anxiety Disorders and Control Related Beliefs: the Exemplar of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).” Clinical Psychology Review 26 (5): 573–583. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, Helen, and Ramesh Perera-Delcourt
2012 “ ‘Learning to Live with OCD is a Little Mantra I Often Repeat’: Understanding the Lived Experience of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in the Contemporary Therapeutic Context.” Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice 87 (1): 111–125. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pajak, Rosanna, Christine Langhoff, Sue Watson, and Sunjeev K. Kamboj
2013 “Phenomenology and Thematic Content of Intrusive Imagery in Bowel and Bladder Obsession.” Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders 2 (3): 233–240. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rachman, Stanley
1993 “Obsessions, Responsibility and Guilt.” Behaviour Research and Therapy 31 (2): 149–154. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rachman, Stanley, Dana S. Thordarson, Roz Shafran, and Sheila R. Woody
1995 “Perceived Responsibility: Structure and Significance.” Behaviour Research and Therapy 33 (7): 779–784. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Reissman, Catherine K.
2003 “Performing Identities in Illness Narrative: Masculinity and Multiple Sclerosis.” Qualitative Research 3 (1): 5–33. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ruuska, Jaana, Riittakerttu Kaltiala-Heino, Anna-Maija Koivisto, and Päivi Rantanen
2003 “Puberty, Sexual Development and Eating Disorders in Adolescent Outpatients.” European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 12 (5): 214–220. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sanavio, Ezio
1988 “Obsessions and Compulsions: the Padua Inventory.” Behaviour Research and Therapy 26 (2): 169–177. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Segrott, Jeremy, and Marcus A. Doel
2004 “Disturbing Geography: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder as Spatial Practice.” Social & Cultural Geography 5 (4): 597–614. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Semino, Elena, Zsófia Demjén, Jane Demmen, Veronika Koller, Sheila Payne, Andrew Hardie, and Paul Rayson
2017 “The Online Use of Violence and Journey Metaphors by Patients with Cancer, as Compared with Health Professionals: a Mixed Methods Study.” BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care 7 (1): 60–66. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Talbot, Jean
1996 “Affirmation and Resistance of Dominant Discourses: the Rhetorical Construction of Pregnancy.” Journal of Narrative and Life History 6 (3): 225–251. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tükel, Raşit, Aslıhan Polat, Aysun Genç, Oya Bozkurt, and Hatice Atli
2004 “Gender-Related Differences among Turkish Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.” Comprehensive Psychiatry 45 (5): 362–366. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Van Schalkwyk, Gerritt I., Ish P. Bhalla, Matthew Griepp, Benjamin Kelmendi, Larry Davidson, and Christopher Pittenger
2016 “Toward Understanding the Heterogeneity of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Evidence from Narratives in Adult Patients.” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 50 (1):74–81. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Velasco Sacristàn, María S., and María E. Cortes de los Rios
2009 “Persuasive Nature of Image Schematic Devices in Advertising: their Use for Introducing Sexisms.” Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 22: 239–270. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Gareth
1984 “The Genesis of Chronic Illness: Narrative Re-Construction.” Sociology of Health & Illness 6 (2):175–200. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Huang, Mimi
2020.  In The Language of Crisis [Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 87], ► pp. 255 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 01 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.