There are people who, feeling frustrated for some reason, unconsciously perform a ritualized action through which they try to reduce their discomfort.

This kind of behavior reflects a psychological phenomenon known as compulsion .

What are compulsions?

The idea of what compulsions are can be defined slightly differently according to two different psychological approaches: psychoanalysis born with Sigmund Freud and cognitive-behavioral psychology.

Compulsions according to psychoanalysis

The concept of compulsion was widely used in the field of psychoanalysis, and from this approach it was understood that its meaning was that of a repetitive behavior that is used to give way to the frustration of not being able to satisfy desires that are born in the most unconscious and passionate part of the mind.

In this way, the compulsions are a way of compensating for the impossibility of responding to an emotional desire while keeping the consciousness distracted and away from the real source of frustration. Thus, for the psychoanalytic approach the compulsion is a way of masking a need whose idea is tried to be repressed so that it does not pass to the conscious part of the psyche.

But this deception does not correspond to reality, and in fact it is not effective to definitively end the need, since it is a superficial and momentary arrangement; that is why this forbidden desire remains latent in the unconscious, and makes the compulsions have to be repeated all the time.

Compulsions according to the cognitive-behavioral paradigm

According to this current of psychology, there is no conscious entity that tries to suppress contents stored in another unconscious entity, so the definition of compulsion renounces these concepts. Thus, from this point of view a compulsion is a behaviour (like stretching one’s hair or washing one’s hands) or a mental act (like mentally repeating a word) that is transformed into a repetitive ritual without having to lead to a clear purpose of which the person is aware.

Over time, the compulsions can repeat themselves so often that they significantly impair a person’s quality of life by not allowing them to perform normal day-to-day plans and tasks.

Causes

As we have seen, the definition of what a compulsion is changes significantly depending on which current we pay attention to. From the current psychology, however, it is considered that the psychoanalytic concept of compulsion is not useful, since it does not allow to submit to hypothesis experimentation; that is why the second one is the dominant one.

According to the concept of compulsion used by the cognitive-behavioral current, the cause of this phenomenon is due to a maladaptive association . That is, the compulsions are the result of a learning process that tries to respond to a sensation of discomfort that is produced assiduously and that is just as bad or worse than what it wants to combat, since it is repeated all the time and makes the person feel good if he or she does not take a series of very determined and rigid steps.

The role of obsessions

It is considered that that unpleasant stimulus that makes the person perform compulsions repeatedly is something called obsession . An obsession is an idea or a mental image (that is, an idea that instead of being able to communicate with words is rather visual) that is unbearable or too intrusive .

For example, you may think very often of a scene that is very embarrassing, or you may think of a photograph that is disgusting.

These obsessions appear without warning and without the person wanting it, and they generate discomfort. Compulsion is the improvised strategy used to try to reduce discomfort. Unfortunately, with time the compulsion becomes as uncontrollable and unpredictable as the obsession , because as it has been repeated it has remained totally associated with it. This mechanism is the foundation of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

  • You can read more about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in this article: “Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): what is it and how does it manifest itself?

Symptoms in cases of compulsion

These are some of the most frequent symptoms related to compulsions and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. It must be taken into account that if there is no feeling of inability to control these actions and if there is no perceived worsening of the quality of life due to them, it is rash to consider that compulsions are present. In any case, the diagnosis should be made by clinical psychologists or other professionals specialized in this type of practice within the health system.

  • Frequent ritual of hand washing
  • Need to have a certain area of the house very well ordered , with perfectly aligned objects, symmetric organizations, etc.
  • Frequent ritual of washing an object always following the same steps in the same order
  • Need to check several times if a door has been locked
  • Need to check many times if the gas tap has been closed