Symbolism of obsessive sanitising as a preventive measure

Problematic Sexual Paradoxes of Pandemic Response (Part #9)

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Considerable emphasis has been made during the pandemic on "sanitising" the hands -- typically on entry to public buildings, and therefore recalling the ritual purification required on entering a place of worship. This bears comparison with hand-washing as a well-recognized obsessiveâ--compulsive disorder - OCD (Vidette Wong, Compulsive hand-washing, DernNet NZ, September 2019). This is understood as s a mental and behavioral disorder in which a person has certain thoughts repeatedly (called "obsessions") and/or feels the need to perform certain routines repeatedly (called "compulsions") to an extent that generates distress or impairs general functioning. Whether encouraging people in such behaviour serves ironically to engender distress and impair general functioning is not discussed.

Freud was notable in framing insight into such compulsive behaviour, as indicated by S. H. Posinsky (Ritual, Neurotic and Social, American Imago, 19, 1962, 4):

The compulsive behavior of neurotics or psychotics is frequently described by psychiatrists and psychoanalysts as a ritual. This concept was first delineated by Freud in his article, Obsessive Acts and Religious Practices [1907], and was further elaborated in Totem and Taboo [1913] and The Future of an Illusion [1927]. It found its logical extension in the preface to Reik's Ritual [1919], where Freud described the "ceremonials and prohibitions of obsessional patients" as "a private religion".

Of some relevance to the current pandemic, the theme was notably evoked from an anthropological perspective by Mary Douglas (Purity and Danger, 1966). It is curious that the strategic response to the pandemic should now evoke what has otherwise been understood by religions as a quest for purity (W. E. van Beek (Ed.), The Quest for Purity: dynamics of Puritan movements, 1988). That compilation included a study by Erik van Ree (The quest for purity in Communism, 1988). The current response therefore merits comparison with the distinctions made by Sophia Liu (A Quest for Purity: The Nuances Between Stalin's Great Purge and Mao's Cultural Revolution, St Mark's Academic Journal, 23 January 2018). The compilation on purity also included studies on the Wahhabi movement, the Fulani jihad, and Shi?ite purity, and the Taiping rebellion.

With respect to the nature of Carl Jung's insights into OCD and its relation to the Shadow, Jesamine Mello associated this with the psychological dynamics of fixation and resistance, thereby constellating a compensatory reaction in the unconscious:

OCD certainly can be related to the shadow, but it would likely be the shadow of a Collective which has not yet integrated the so-called problem of evil into their worldview. For them, evil is â-"e;out thereâ-" or in â-"e;somebody else.â-" They see themselves only as the good guys. This collective mindset constellates (perhaps unconsciously) a general fear of evil and sin, which produces compensations. (Quora, 13 February 2021)

In a related framework, the preoccupation with sanitising could be strangely associated with "cleansing the soul" -- and hence the prescribed use of holy water -- ironically now taking secular form (effectively "blessed" by the pharmaceutical industry). The paradoxical aspects are evident in some rituals to that end (Brock Bastian, Cleansing the Soul by Hurting the Flesh: the guilt-reducing effect of pain, Association for Psychological Science, 8 March 2011).

The quest for cleanliness and purity extends tragically to a preoccupation with separation from those deemed unclean, as in caste systems and avoidance of contact with those of other religious or ideological beliefs -- extending into avoidance of intermarriage and ethnic cleansing, together with the advocacy and practice of eugenics to ensure the purity of the racial bloodline (Jacques Semelin, Purify and Destroy: the political uses of massacre and genocide,  2009).

Understood as an initiative unconsciously evoked, sanitising also suggests a recognition of a dangerous lack of "cognitive hygiene" -- notably suggested by recognition of the need to "clean up" behaviours and attitudes (Vigorous Application of Derivative Thinking to Derivative Problems, 2013).

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