Page 64 - Middle Georgia State University - Knighted 2019

present in obsessives is an insatiable desire for the repetitious thoughts and ritualistic actions to
cease; however, the much sought-after alleviation from performing the behaviors is only
temporary, at best. Contrary to its involuntary, never-ending and insidious nature, OCD is
portrayed with levity in the media. The question of why humor is superimposed over the serious
nature of this disorder represents a deeper core issue, one of detachment. Quite simply, bad
things seem funnier when they are happening to someone else.

Within the media portrayal of obsessive-compulsive disorder, humor is used as a device
in perpetuating a further divide between individuals, but more specifically, those who are
afflicted with mental disorders and those who are not: the normal ones. The social response to a
mental disorder is akin to a communicable disease: that a neurologic impairment is contagious.
This is precisely the type of alienation that can occur with populations of individuals who are
seen as different, abnormal, or even inhuman. It would seem, however, that in the case of Melvin
Udall, his alienation and rejection is self-perpetuated. The audience may speculate that Udall can
at any time improve his situation by simply changing or halting his behaviors, which reflects the
failure by the audience to understand how OCD operates. What is disjunctive here is the
perception of society in relation to the true nature of the condition. There exists a lack of
understanding of the disorder. There is a perpetual detachment of and to the human condition and
an inability to relate to one another’s humanity; there is a lack of empathy for individuals
suffering from OCD.

In Melvin Udall’s case, his obsessive-compulsive disorder is innate to his being. It is a
biologic neurological impairment that he was born with, placing him within the cognitive
psychological paradigm. While the audience is not privy to Udall’s childhood and prior life, it
can be assumed that this is who he is, for better or worse, and it is not an effect of his

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