Resources related to Obsessive Compusive behavior (OCD or OCPD) as it relates to Legal obsessions.

Factual Questions
1

I’m looking for information related to OCD/OCPD/pathologically obsessive behavior in general as it relates to fears that relate to the Legal realm. I’m finding plenty of resources regarding obsessions related to religion (e.g. did I say that prayer right? If I didn’t, I could go to hell!), and general physical contamination or disease.

Are there any good (non-crackpot non-quack) resources related to:

  1. Obsessions or compulsions about breaking the law (e.g. obsessing over statute books and case law in order to remove any possible way you could be breaking the law, even if in real life it is so minor that police and prosecutors simply wouldn’t care).
  2. Obsessions or compulsions about being in one of those “legal horror stories” where a mild-mannered schoolteacher who wouldn’t harm a fly was in the wrong place at the wrong time and now faces 10 felony charges with the possibility of spending decades in prison, and whose life is basically already ruined, even if his defense is ultimately successful, or otherwise fearing becoming the next pip in that officer’s arrest quota.

I’m NOT asking anyone to diagnose me or anyone I know. I’m looking for FACTUAL articles/books/etc. related to these types of phenomena.

2

In the religious context, it’s called “scrupulosity.” The term is also used for legal scruples (in the old sense), but it’s apparently not so common.

3

The keywords you should be searching are “querulous paranoia” and “vexatious litigation”.

Whoops - reading your OP, I see you’re talking about something a little different.

4

I think you are on the right track. I have found several resources related to religious scrupulosity. Apparently this is commonly known to occur in Roman Catholics and Orthodox Jews and apparently is less common in religions that have a lower emphasis on “doing” a prayer or a ritual right.

Anyway, I’m looking for the equivalent condition, if it actually exists, with respect to secular law (e.g. local civil, criminal, or administrative law) rather than the “laws” of any specific religion. E.g. sometimes Catholics have been known to worry about whether they might have committed a “mortal sin” and forgotten to confess it, or worry that a specific act and intent might constitute a mortal sin even though a priest says it doesn’t. In the legal sense, we are e.g. talking about a person obsessing over whether they might just have committed a crime.

5

Doesn’t OCD technically require compulsive, repetitive behaviors of some sort? What you are describing might be better characterized as a more generalized anxiety disorder.

6

The term OCD stand for Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder. While every person technically has both obsessions and compulsions, it varies in which is more severe. I personally have O-type OCD, which means obsessions are a bigger problem than overt compulsions.

Plus, scrupulosity, whether religious or legal, does involve compulsions. The religious person is constantly doing whatever ritual is required to resolve them from their sins. The legal equivalent would be I guess be constantly making sure that no cops saw them. Or constantly making sure there were witnesses so they couldn’t be found guilty of something they didn’t do.

People with generalized anxiety disorder just feel anxious all the time. They don’t specialize to this degree. A specialized version might be a phobia, but these present differently: a phobic person just avoids whatever it is that troubles them.

7

I rarely see scrupulosity linked with OCPD (Obsessive/Compulsive Personality Disorder). People with the disorder appear to be scrupulous, but really it’s more to do with a completely inflexible feeling of right and wrong. OCPDers have a pathological need to follow rules, and religion or law are just another set of rules to follow.

I neglected to discuss an aspect of scrupulosity in my previous post: a scrupulous OCD sufferer often actually obsesses over what they consider an evil thought. They come up with complex rituals to try to get rid of this thought. An OCPDer would never have this experience. Right and wrong are concrete, nonnegotiable concepts, and there’s no gray.

Remember, OCPD is so named because its external symptoms are similar to OCD, not because the pathology is actually similar. An OCPDer is observed performing what appear to be compulsions, but are really just rituals that make them happy. An OCPDer feels distress when that person or others don’t follow the rules.

I know the OP probably already knows this about OCPD, but I post for the benefit of others.

8

Thanks!