Obsessive-compulsive disorder is my second favorite mental illness. I enjoy reading about it in medical journals, etc., and I loved Jack Nicholson’s depiction of an afflictee in As Good As It Gets, where he plays a neurotic/borderline-psychotic writer who washes his hands with a fresh bar of Neutrogena soap every fifteen minutes and can’t step on a crack for fear of breaking his mother’s back, which, of course, he wouldn’t since he’s like sixty years old and his mother has been dead for about fifteen years. Plus, it might not be Neutrogena soap at all, it could be some other honey-colored, non-opaque, low-lathering, individually-wrapped knockoff brand that looks like Neutrogena soap, who knows? I'm certainly not privy to all the inside details involved in making a major motion picture, but with a big star like Nicholson present, I can't imagine that they'd skimp on something so elemental to the story as Neutrogena soap, do you? After all, they have multi-million dollar budgets, so why would they take a chance on pissing Jack off and risking one of his legendary rants that could shut down the lot and set production schedules back over something as silly as buying imitation Neutrogena soap?
I mean, schizophrenia is, and always will be my all-time favorite, but that’s not what I want to talk about this morning.
It wasn’t always this way, either. At one time, psychosocial disability came close to edging out obsessive-compulsive for second place, but lately it’s become so prevalent that every time I watch the news I realize that virtually every celebrity has it, thereby making the terms ‘celebrity’ and ‘psychosocial disability’ synonymous. I prefer my mental illnesses to be a little less common, don’t you? The laundry list of other maladies such as schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and general anxiety (like who doesn’t have that?) don’t even come close.
No, obsessive-compulsive will never reach the stellar heights of schizophrenia, but it couldn’t be expected to, could it? Schizophrenia is the apex predator of mental illnesses, stalking the population like a great tyrannosaur, taking what it wants and generally wreaking havoc wherever it shows up.
But, obsessive-compulsive embodies many of the characteristics necessary to top my list. If only it were a little more prevalent, I think there’s a good chance that it might someday overtake schizophrenia. We’ll just have to wait and see. Meanwhile, I think I'll pop As Good As It Gets into the DVD player and watch Nicholson do his thing. I love how he washes his hands with a fresh bar of Neutrogena soap every fifteen minutes, but that goes without saying... who doesn't, right?
2 comments:
Sooooo how would you know about the color of Neutrogena soap? Perhaps you have a case stashed in your closet? Hmmmm.
Well, however I found out, it isn't due to having four--no, make that five-- cases of Neutrogena in the linen closet. At least, not so far as you can prove.
Actually, I remember it from the movie. I thought it was glycerin and my wife corrected me that it was, indeed, Neutrogena. Maybe I should be questioning her about the contents of the linen closet...
Post a Comment