Stuck on the puzzle. A philosophical inquiry on OCD

The idea

 
Stuck on the puzzle. A philosophical inquiry on OCD aims to provide a philosophical understanding on experiences of compulsions, obsessions and intense uncertainty, commonly through the contribution of people experiencing such phenomena.

These experiences are typically thought of as part of an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but you do not have to be officially diagnosed as such or identify with this label in order to talk to us. 

We are a goup of philosophers interested in people’s experiences. Some of us, who are conceiving this project, do have OCD, and this is what motivates us to initiate a dialogue on this theme, bringing together philosophical resources, especially those coming from the field of phenomenology, and lived experiences. 

We are planning to create a podcast featuring a dialogue with people who have, or have had, these experiences. We believe that this kind of conversations can reveal certain aspects that are useful for society to consider, and also interesting to ponder from a philosophical perspective. 

Our belief is that people who live these experiences may contribute to a better understanding of these conditions, and may also provide support to people who feel similarly. 

Our aim is not to establish a diagnosis, or anything like that, rather to have an interesting conversation where people feel welcome, heard, and safe.

We are looking for volunteers who are willing to come talk to us on the podcast on the following issues: 

- compulsive checking (for instance, checking electrical appliances and plug sockets over and over)

- obsessive thoughts and questioning (e.g. intrusive thoughts, superstitious thinking)

- washing and cleaning compulsions

- collecting and hoarding compulsions

The conversation would be recorded and published. There would be options to preserve your anonymity, if you wish. We are thinking that we might want to talk to people twice, having an initial discussion first, and then a follow-up discussion later down the line. But the second one is not a requirement. 

You do not have to be a philosopher yourself to talk to us, as we are primarily interested in having conversations with people from all walks of life. We would find it interesting, for instance, to talk about what people going through heightened feelings of uncertainty and ambiguous experiences have found useful or not so useful when dealing with these. Or to talk about experiences of this sort that can be difficult to understand even as we are going through them. 

We are hoping to create something together that could help other people struggling with similar challenges.

If you would be interested in talking with us, please contact us at ocdproject23@gmail.com

This project is born under the Renewing Phenomenological Psychopathology Co-production Scheme.