Positive Obsessiveness
The following list is proposed in comparison with the previous list titled Negative Obsessiveness. It demonstrates how, in my opinion, OCPD is an underlying system that can, (depending on the influences of the environment, education and biology) give rise to positive characteristics that are nonetheless linked to their negative counterparts. How they are molded to be is linked to a myriad of factors. Hence on the basis of this analysis, hope emerges: someone afflicted with OCPD is in itself the breeding ground for something positive to happen with those negative traits…
- intense concentration: Mr. OCPD has the ability to engage in very intense thought processes that other individuals do not have. A problem needs to be solved: Mr. OCPD will not abandon until it is solved! He will constantly keep his mind at it.
- high acuity and receptivity to details: Mr. OCPD sees things that others do not. He feels things that others do not. Because of OCPD, he possesses more hints and more predictive power than other people.
- desire of things well done: The work to be handed out by Mr. OCPD has to excel (e.g. a university paper, an engineering project, a cleaning duty, whatever). If it is not well done, Mr. OCPD will not “feel right”. Consequently he will review the work twice, he will use up all the available time allowed (to the point of being late), he will improve and improve again. Mr. OCPD’s motto goes somewhat like this: “Why stop now if it can be even better?” It can indeed be annoying but one thing is for sure: the results will be of high quality.
- very stringent standards and ideals, high morality : “Imperfection is unacceptable! Why? I don’t know, that’s just how it ought to be!” High moral standards may be difficult to attain and quite often deceiving, they nevertheless lead to more successful, healthy and serene lives (at least in the long run).
- “fatalism”: Fatalism mostly appears to be negative but Mr. OCPD can also find some advantages to it: namely that something good ought to be done “no-questions-asked” and that something bad ought not to be done “no-questions-asked”! The purity of “good” and “bad” is obviously debatable but what I want ot illustrate here is that Mr. OCPD will stand by his principles and fight in their favour “no-matter-what”.
- perseverance: If Mr. OCPD has an enhanced ability to perservere with negative thoughts, then it is obvious that he can do so as well with positive thoughts. He HAS to solve a problem. He likes things well done and no one is more determined than he is in overcoming his troubles, namely OCPD!
- “fertile” imagination: If Mr. OCPD’s imagination is fertile enough to create out-of-the-ordinary scenarios about having a perfect body and a symmetrical chest, for example, then his imagination will be equally fertile in creating out-of-the-ordinary material to be used in constructive projects and in exposing never-uncovered-before material!
- out-of-the-box thinking: Thinking “out-of-the-box” is usually identified as an essential, if not necessary, characteristic to successful individuals.
- being a thinker: We already know that Mr. OCPD is a thinker. It might be discouraging to have negative thoughts like he does, but here is what I say: nevermind the content! Mr. OCPD is a good thinker, he masters the activity of thinking, that which many people do not. This is clearly an advantage. In addition, the more you think, the more you give your good thoughts a chance to pop up through your mind. The more you think, the more you give yourself the chance to become intelligent.