By: Rivka

Rivka — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 03:49:17 +0000

I think 1991 “Sleeping With the Enemy” featured a very OCD charachter Martin should have been included…

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 12 May 2017 00:41:47 +0000

I feel compelled to comment on this Top 10 OCD list . . .
Not only are many of the characters you are labeling OCD not displaying OCD characteristics at all, I feel like your explanation of this mental disorder is so superficial and in many cases false. It seems negligent to be claiming these characters as having OCD as it leads to so much misunderstanding about an already misunderstood disorder. I would ask that you take this down as the tone of this piece comes across like you are an expert or at least somewhat knowledgable about a serious and very real mental disorder when in fact you have no idea what you are talking about. It is also so cheaply written – I have received more thoughtful writing via text from my 16 year old niece.

By: Suham

Suham — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 17:35:02 +0000

In reply to Lucy Bulloch. I hope You get Better

By: Lucy Bulloch

Lucy Bulloch — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 13:19:46 +0000

I think all these films are valid points. OCD can stem from other mental illnesses. It annoys me when people assume OCD is all about cleaning. I have a personality disorder. Not a border line personality disorder, not even an obsessive personality disorder. I have a schizoid personality disorder. No I’m not dangerous. But I also have a debilitating OCD. And I don’t clean my house more than necessary. Mine is all about numbers and touching things a certain amount of times. And an over whellming urge to touch thinks I don’t want to touch. Things I find disgusting. I IBT know if the SPD causes the OCD or the other way around. But either way it’s a night mare

By: Megan

Megan — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 19:38:35 +0000

Turner and Hooch i love that movie. Tom Hanks does have a slight reseblemce of Ocd in the movie. I myself suffers Ocd.

By: Scott Schneider

Scott Schneider — Tue, 14 May 2013 02:51:08 +0000

I appreciate the compassion and the understanding that Warren expresses in the introduction to this blog piece. I think each movie he quotes in here has a contribution of OCD characters in them to the degree he describes. I must express one disagreement, but it is major. I don’t think What About Bob was a “contrived, vapid comedy” that signified the beginning of Bill Murray’s end-of-career comedy wasteland. Was it a brilliant comedy? No. Did it have to be? No. But I saw it when I was 17 and I said then as I do now that it was a comedy about a mentally ill person that was ahead of it’s time. I regarded Bob Wiley as a harmless, silly, out-of-control but non-threatening character who endeared himself to the audience as someone who was neurotic but not a psycho. On my page on Facebook Obsessive Compulsive Disorder/OCD Awareness https://www.facebook.com/ocd.ocd we deal with stigma and the fear of the stigma regarding mental illness all of the time. In society where the first thought regarding a mentally ill character or person tends to conjure up images of the antagonist from the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” or “Saw” movies, What About Bob showed that a person who may seemed outwardly crazy or even disturbed or disruptive on the outside in most cases is not a harm to others. The far majority of people with OCD, for example, are not prone to any violence at all . For great example, those who have OCD and have harming obsessions, these are almost always egodystonic or “out of character” for them to even consider harming another human being. In schizophrenics, with those who develop hallucinations that drive them to harm others, if they are on proper medication to control these, they are not a threat to anyone.

For far too long we’ve expressed our fear of the mentally ill in this culture as being the guy we read in the newspaper who hacks his girlfriend and her 4 kids to death because he loses his job “and snaps”, which never actually happens all at once. Such a person had a temperament and red flags that generally led up to this occurring in most situations.

So what does this have to do with What About Bob. Well, What About Bob is the kind of movie that you can sit your kids down with and have them see the face of an innocent and disheveled mentally ill individual (with OCD symptoms) who is not out to stalk the girl next door or go into a school and shoot up a cafeteria full of elementary students, which is far better than I can say about most movies in the theatre these days. With the sensationalized media, we’ve become far too accustomed to hearing about the disaster stories from the violently mentally ill who shouldn’t have had their hands on guns, weapons, or been out and about in functional society in any way. Instead, in the far-fetched silliness of that movie, we see the face of a person who more accurately reflects the population of people who suffer from depression, ADHD, OCD, schizo, seasonal affective disorder and other types of spectrum disorders. They are well-meaning, very sensitive, harmless, yet dysfunctional people who; no matter how hard they try, find their disorders get in the way of their own lives. Some of them even have a fuzzy, laughable demeanor like Bob did in the movie and they may very well drive their family, loved one’s , and even their therapists crazy. Sure, Bob went a little overboard taking over Dr Leo Marvin’s life but that’s why it was a comedy. If Bob just pushed Dr Marvin over in the boat while fishing on Lake Winnipesaukee and that was the movie, somebody would be complaining about how boring it was. And it’s always a fun joke to think about the patient driving anal-retentive shrink crazy. That’s fun of enjoying this kind of silly slapstick. It’s innocent, it’s harmless, it’s nothing that people walk away from say, “Gees, that was a little disturbing, maybe I shouldn’t have had my 10 year old on the couch with me.” And best of all, it certainly, along with Monk, expresses a character who has OCD/mental disorders in the positive light rather than a shock-value, destructive fashion. Sometimes it’s better I think, just to relax and laugh because something is funny, rather than deem it funny and then laugh at it because it’s simply not conventional or follows an agenda.