ABSTRACT
When we worry, we do not simply worry about something going wrong. We also worry because we are worried – because something is wrong with us. This worry contains a risk analysis of both the world and the self. But this risk analysis always takes place in relation to the society around us. In this chapter, the author illustrates how the most prevalent types of obsessive-compulsive disorder are enabled by the society in which they occur. In religious societies, for example, it is more common to experience anxiety over having fallen short in one's faith or morals. This anxiety itself creates more anxiety in a pattern typical to OCD. In the 1980s, many became anxious because they were afraid of contracting AIDS, and the anxiety itself created a fear of having been infected. Through several different testimonies, the author describes similar fears in the present day and explains how they reflect our society. For example, we follow Isaac, who believes that he – unconsciously – suffers from various sexual deviations that he considers perverse. We follow Maria, who thinks that she is, unconsciously, a psychopath. And we follow Mats, who suspects that he subconsciously wants to divorce his wife. This highlights three fields that have, in recent years, been particularly shaped by uncertainty: sexuality, violence, and relationships. The argument posits that the most pathologized forms of anxiety should be viewed not as individual aberrations, but as manifestations of common fears, arising from parts of life increasingly marked by risk and uncertainty.
