The Possession

The Possession is based on a woman's inability to move on after a break up specially after she finds out her ex has moved on so quickly. I feel like this is a reading that everyone can relate to because even if we don't want to admit it there is always that one person we can never forget and breaking up and getting over that person was one of the hardest things to do. Like the author we find ourselves wanting to know why? why they have moved on so quickly? why they have chosen this person? is he/she the same way he/she was with me?. We become consumed with trying to answer these questions and find ourselves going above and beyond to find those answers. Everyone is different some can move on from relationship to relationship and be fine but for others it's much more difficult to move specially when they believe that the relationship can be fixed but then find their ex has already moved on.

Specialization as Monomania

As soon as I read the title "Specialization as Monomania" I knew this chapter would involve what we spoke about in our last discussion about specialization as an obsession.In this chapter Davis explains how with time madness was being excepted as a part of normality. I agree that to be specialization can be described as a form of obsession, as children we are encouraged to find our passion and from a young age start thinking about what we want to do with the rest of our lives. Society encourages us to specialize in science, medicine, technology, the arts, etc. and to aim to obtain the highest level that we can, we are encouraged to be the best of the best and to know everything their is to know about our specialty, so in a way society is encouraging us to be obsessed and we are rewarded for being obsessed with money, praise, and high social status.

Monomania

In chapter 2 we are introduced to Monomania, which is the term used to describe the concept or definition of what we know as obsession today. Monomania is defined as a disease in which monomaniacs are aware of the wrongness or inappropriateness of some aspects of their behavior, reasonably seeing that this function or action is awry, while still being able to use their reason to resist the action or though(p.68). If you were a monomaniac you were preoccupied with on single idea or train of thought which you knew was wrong but had no control to resist it.
                                           I can see why Monomania relates to what we know today as an obsession and its development to OCD, I think the definitions are almost identical. It makes me consider Davis' theory of OCD as a disease entity, monomania its definition and symptoms isn't wrong and the person diagnosing it was not wrong for calling it that, instead it is considered a first step into learning about what we consider obsession now during that century, monomaniac evolved with new findings and became obsessions not proved that the previous findings were wrong. I believe that the whole idea of a disease entity is that with time things will change, change does not equal error instead change equals evolution.