Obsession

Movie: Angst

My Rating: 4 stars

This is a pretty fascinating Dutch documentary about a handful of people living in Amsterdam, who are suffering from some very severe cases of OCD or other anxiety disorders.  Their individual obsessions range from phobias like a fear of heights or a total distrust of foreigners, to preoccupations with traumatic events from their pasts, or highly ritualistic showers that take hours to complete.  One woman is even obsessed with the idea of being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and is hopping from doctor to doctor, hoping to get one.  (All her previous physicians had merely diagnosed her with various forms of depression, and she wasn’t satisfied).  All of these individuals’ cases are very severe.  It’s so bad that most of them can’t even leave their own houses on a normal day.  What’s interesting about all their cases is that they are all attempting to cure their problems through cognitive therapy instead of drugs.  The theory behind this is that if the patients understand why they are engaging in their OCD behaviors, and if they practice resisting the impulses, they’ll be able to stop.

The tone of this documentary seems pretty neutral.  It doesn’t seem like it’s biased toward one particular outcome.  But, the pretty unambiguous conclusion that it comes to is that this time-intensive, whishy-washy therapy is just an exercise in futility when it comes to hard-core cases of obsessive compulsive disorder.  All the patients already know they have a problem.  That’s why they are seeking therapy in the first place.  If merely recognizing troubling behavior were the key to overcoming their compulsions, then all of them would already be cured.  We get to sit in on many of these people’s therapy sessions, and the whole thing seems like a huge racket—just running up the bill, and not doing these patients much good.  These aren’t just people who need to work through their emotional issues by talking them out with someone.  They are desperate individuals who need real help to reclaim their lives.  And really, none of them makes any headway until they give up on this method of treatment and start using psychotropic drugs.  Some of the patients feel like failures for having to resort to this, but the positive results are really quite dramatic.

This film has a very simple format.  It just allows the viewers to follow all the subjects in their daily journeys to find a normal life for themselves.  It’s not one of those devastating downers.  These people live in the Netherlands with its robust social support system, so even though none of them can work, they’ll never sink into destitution, or be kicked out of their homes.  But, the mood is very somber and thoughtful.  Also, the film doesn’t feel too creepy or voyeuristic.  It doesn’t appeal to one’s morbid curiosity.  It’s just a compelling story about a group of people coming to grips with their frail humanity.  It’s really quite compelling, and I recommend it.