Posted by temoigneur on August 7, 2005, at 0:20:21
In reply to Re: Broken Lens, Scrupulosity apt description, posted by Dena on August 5, 2005, at 16:52:28
> Yes - interesting indeed.
>
> But I'm wondering - what's your point?
>
Hi Dena, the articles, particularily the first one, just struck me as unusually poignant, and I hoped it may give some people some insight, or be encouraging to some....
>
Are you pointing fingers...? Are you intending this for any particular person? Or just all of us who talk of faith?I don't know anyone on this board, so I couldn't direct it to an individual, but I apologize for the following except, I understand how someone would feel judged:
"An individual with religious obsessions often may focus excessively on one particular concern about sin while neglecting other aspects of his or her religion. Most religions place a high priority on compassion and being a good neighbor. The scrupulous individual while focusing excessively on a few specific rules may neglect this more general dictum.
Religious leaders within the Roman Catholic and Jewish community have addressed these issues. Commentators in both of these groups have writings that label scrupulosity as a sin. One rabbi called it idolatry because the excessive devotion to a specific ritual (to the detriment of good acts toward other people) elevated the ritual to a god-like status.
>I guess the accusation of idolatry would only factor in if one believes in a higher power. If one does, unfortunately it seems life has left it to us to decide whether one has any control in modfiying their scrupulous tendencies through CBT; pursuit of intervention from a higher power - although I can only see the latter idea exacerbating scrupulosity. Not exploring CBT, or so is labelled by the cited catholic and rabbidic clergy as sin.
I'm taught that sin is a greek term used in archery literally meaning, "to miss the mark". I suppose if one does believe that scrupulosity can be modified to some extent, sin in this case, could possibly be taken to mean a failure to engage in appropriate CBT therapy or the like - however, from my own experience at the receiving end of the therapist - patient relationship, I'm not convinced this therapy does work for everyone - (I certainly don't like the notion that I am responsible to correct this through more demoralizing CBT work. One thing is certain, I'm stuck with this condition for now, and if medication won't take it away, therapy is my only option, one I have avoided as much as humanly possible. So if you're feeling guilty and overwhelmed, I think it's the nature of the condition, but I'm very sick with it too - you're not alone:)
Take care,
Ben
poster:temoigneur
thread:538180
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050801/msgs/538577.html