Writing Obsession: A Black Voodoo?
Ever lying on your fluffy spring bed, counting ‘sheep’ for a nap? Sure, with the midnight cold breeze grazing your feet. Those little stars up there are flickering, sensing your deep true emotion. Even the nature is compromising you! If only ‘they’ are really ‘sheep’, with four legs and skin of wool. Instead, it is the sand of time that you keep splashing on your fullest imagination, resurrecting him from the deepest of your memory. Now you are obsessed.
Being defined as an act that you are always pre-occupied with differs it from passion. Passion, simply speaking, is the strong powerful emotion that fills your day, consuming a page of your thick diary, or even more. Transforming you into a living puppet where your obsession is the master playing the tiny strings that lock your joints. Here comes the crucial issue. Will you make a play of the Lord of Darkness, committing massacre or is it an angel giving blessing to others?
History then greets us with thousands of episodes, some are great to be passed to the next generation while some not. That is the ultimate rule of nature, nothing is perfect. As epitome, World War I (WWI) is one fair enough to be discussed. Although it did not involve the whole people on this spherical earth as it name deserves, it sequences do. Highlighting France as a part of the drama, it is just one of many European countries. Quoting Thomas J. Scheff in his epic book Bloody Revenge, it is the obsession that raise the France battalion to something that they can proud of. 43 years before the great war emerged, France was defeated in Franco-Prussian War (1871). It was such a shame to an imperial. The lost of French honor in the war was decried years after that it became an obsession. This is historically proven by the media of the era. Leading newspaper, poems, novels and plays openly vowing to regain the fallen pride. Revenge, a word of choice, shattering most of the heart of harmony. Soon, they made alliance with Russia, claiming it was an insurance against an attack by Germany. However, retrospectively, it was just a step forward taken by France’s obsessed leading military leaders in order to instigate a war against Germany.
Indeed, it was a successful revenge against Germany, as the historian recorded. For their utter dismay, they are living in a circle, a circle of obsession ( counter revenge theory ) , as termed by some psychology professors all around the world. Even the earth is a circle, physiologically. From another point of view, the Germany’s defeat possessed a young man, the uprising political leader, Adolf Hitler. He was obsessed. As the saying goes, an eye for an eye.
Who is Adolf Hitler? A common question, but the answer is never the common one. According to the testimony of his intimates, his personality is bizarre to the point of madness. His delusions, phobias, sadisms, sexual aberration and utter isolations are well documented. All the symptoms lead to a sure sign of mental illness. Such a paradox for a man that shaped his nation’s history. How come this kind of man able to gather the most united strength of the history despite of the fact that he is a dictator? The question puzzled our historians for centuries. Rationally, he is a man meant to fail, with no follower, as all of his facts are well known men. Yet, they are fanatically loyal saviors. There are no supporting reasons, virtually.
Shame theory comes into the act, suggesting a logic solution. Hitler’s obsession of restoring his lost pride and his undertreated nation was the key to his vast appeal to the public and the followers. His book, Mein Kampf, and his recorded speech are thick with shame and humiliation. His feelings were exactly the same as his followers. The aftermath of the defeat in WWI and unfair Treaty of Versailles gives birth to anger and aggression amongst the people of Germany. These feelings are their loyal friends, in their attempt to cure their pain, an aggravating pain of shame and humiliation. As the circle cycled, the WWI is continued by World War II ( WWII ). Another obsession-borne devastating war.
Enough with that medieval era, of Napoleon and Hitler. As the time goes, even the modern history has watched hundreds of tearful yet complicated dramas. The swiping of World Trade Center ( WTC ) from the daily phenomenon on 11th September 2001 is too nice to be cited. This so called 9/11 has changed millions fates. From a child to a man and even an oldie counting his day. The doom stained Americans’ pride and honor, which should be cleared as soon as possible. The humiliation of the American security forces the president at that time, George W Bush came into action. Being haunted by the mistakes of his military in defending the nation, he was desperate enough to grant America its power again. Obsession came fitting its role, making this people a good puppet. A good actor indeed. Instead of acknowledging the humiliation and the security weakness, he masked it by an action against a nation that play no significant role. Iraq be the chosen one. Like a rampaging crazy man, all the victims are helpless bystanders.
Perhaps the most crucial question is not about the leaders, but the public. A war that consumes their money, life and even the beloved one seem irrelevant to silence them, but it is the fact, they are silenced. Perhaps, they are ready to live in a lie, so the fear, grief, sorrow and humiliation that they experience from the 9/11 can be hidden by the obsessive revenge, no matter how inaccurate the target is.
It is the obsession that results in millions of bloody events all around the world, and all around the history. No doubt at all, they are the fact! Nevertheless, it is also the obsession that gives Napoleon, Hitler and the American second life. They struggle, appreciating every second left on their journey of life.
Ever think of a superman? Is he just a fantasy of a lonely child? No, he is you, after you reveal your power. A power of will, usually starts with a passion, followed by an obsession.
Generally speaking, obsession is a hidden mass of energy that can force you to finish your work, achieving your goal and even setting for a better future.
A mesmerizing fact studied by the modern scientist, it is impossible for a couple to stand together the whole life with just love, the purest one though. It is the obsession that arises from the deep obsessive passionate love.
We do not really need a poet to express, what love is with beautiful and romantic words ever. Our anthropologist, Helen Fisher, states that love can be divided into three different chemical states. The lust, which is driven by androgens and estrogen, while romantic love, characterized by intensely emotional mood swings and obsessive craving, is driven by high dopamine and norepinephrine levels, along with low serotonin. The third state, of stable attachment, is driven by the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin.
According to Fisher, the three states occur evolutionarily. It is somehow related to the evolutionary theory, a theory that stresses the presence of evolution if it leads to better survival of a species. Fisher says that lust evolved as a mechanism for people to be interested on a basic level in reproduction with others, while romantic love developed to focus one’s mating energy on just one individual. Stable attachment works to tolerate this individual long enough to raise children as a team. The obsessive energy output of being in love might seem illogical in the context of evolutionary theory, especially since love is often not reciprocated, but this ability to forgo short term efficiency in favour of greater long term reproductive success makes sense as an important adaptation for the continuation of the human race.
Unleashing the good and the dark side of obsession, it is just like our cerebral hemispheres. Each part plays it own role, funding a better society in the future.
Written by:
Muhammad Aiman Bin Mohd Azhari
2nd Year
Ain Shams University
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