Use Of Obsessions In Alison Bechdel's Fun Home

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating disorder that affects all aspects of a person’s life. This project is inspired by Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, which depicts moments of the development of her OCD in her childhood to cope with her parent’s stressful marriage. Bechdel uses imagery to represent her obsessions and compulsions, which she diagnoses as OCD later on in life. Her behaviors included repetition of actions such as counting, fixing her shoes until they lined up, and writing “I think” after every sentence in her diary. At times, her ritualistic behaviors, which took large amounts of energy and effort, dictated whether she could move on to other tasks or pay attention to the world around her. Pediatric OCD is a debilitating disorder that causes negative and extreme behaviors in children which affect social functioning and the ability to sustain relationships with other children.

Obsessions can be defined as reoccurring negative thoughts and/or urges meanwhile compulsions are repetitive behaviors that may become ritualistic in order to cope with the obsessions. Common examples of obsessions are fear of contamination, aggressive thoughts, thinking of violent images, and constantly feeling doubt. Meanwhile, common compulsions are frequently washing hands, repeating words or phrases, arranging items, and counting. Adult OCD and pediatric OCD differ due to the fact that children usually “lack insight into the unreasonable nature of their obsessions” (Chowdhury and Marsden 42). In other words, they are unaware of what may be causing their obsessions. Due to this lack of awareness, children have a harder time dealing with their obsessions and compulsions that impact their