Just for Fun: The Misappropriation of OCD for Humor and the Role of Critical Disciplines in Claiming It Back

Abstract

While my ultimate goal in this book is to present a reading of OCD through literary lenses, an understanding of which can be expanded and applied in advocacy, education, and other forms of critical inquiry, I believe it is also important to offer some commentary on the theoretical foundation that sustains the work and on the disciplines from which I draw insights. As shown in Chapter 2, it is equally important to present some reflection on historical linguistic and discursive elements as well as to employ “literary” in its broader sense. I say this because, taken as a group, these components all contribute to the social understandings that we apply to medical phenomena in our own time.