in repetitive gestures; there is a sense that great dangers lie in not per-
forming these routines, or in deviating from the usual script; finally,
there is often no obvious connection between the actions performed
and their usual significance (in rituals people can rub bamboo shavings
on a blade and say that "cleans" it, in the same way as obsessive-com-
pulsive individuals will avoid treading on the lines of the pavement
and assume that this protects them in some way).^13
This argument appeared at the same time as the neuropsychology
of OCD—and the disorder's origins in brain function—became much
clearer. The condition is not due to an arbitrary combination of fear
and strange concepts. It comes from a specific disorder in the brain's [239]
planning functions and responds rather well to medication. The con-
dition is associated with abnormal activation of particular brain areas
that mediate the combination of plans and emotions. Some of these
areas are generally involved in producing emotional responses to pos-
sible as well as actual situations. They are indispensable to normal
everyday functioning, because we are constantly choosing between
various courses of action, to which these functional systems assign
higher or lower values. Also, we are constantly considering the possi-
ble outcomes of what we are doing, and we therefore must foresee all
sorts of consequences of each course of action. In particular, we can-
not operate normally without a keen sense of the possible dangers
that might result from intervening circumstances as we are perform-
ing an action. The sense that danger lurks in each of our everyday
actions is something that is taken for granted by such systems,
although in most circumstances this is not made conscious. Opening
the car door before the car has come to a complete stop may be con-
sidered by such a system and rejected by running a quick scenario of
what might happen and giving it a negative emotional valence before
it is considered by the systems that plan motor behavior. Various
plans for actions are considered and most of them are rejected by
higher planning functions without our being aware of this selection.
It is not yet entirely clear how the abnormal activation of such sys-
tems takes place in those with OCD; but the discoveries of neuro-
imagery and physiology suggest that OCD may result from a slight
distortion of normal brain functioning. In those affected by the disor-
der, these systems seem to talk loudly enough, as it were, to drive
actual motor behavior (people cannot help performing the routines)
as well as emotional responses (nonperformance creates a strong feel-
ing of fear or anguish).^14
WHYRITUALS?