John D. Rockefeller: Turning Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Into Success :: Biography Biographies Essays

John D. Rockefeller Turning Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Into Success John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil magnate who, by the time of hisdeath in 1937, was believably worth close to a billion dollars, is perhaps wholeness of the best historical examples of an obsessive-compulsive. Anobsessive-compulsive is one who is driven to an act or acts, generally cosmos asocial. By his own fixations and by nature of his peculiar psyche he must balance these actions with others more socially acceptable. There argonabundant examples of Rockefellers whole kit and caboodle fitting these clinicalcharacteristics, and John D. Rockefeller is today generally regarded as anobsessive-compulsive. The roots of this disorder are traceable back to hischildhood. While much of Rockefellers business recital remains a mysterytoday, it is apparent that much of his success is attributable to hisobsessive-compulsive disorder. Franz Alexander and Louis B. Shapiros description of the obsessive-compulsive di sorder from their book Neuroses, Behavior Disorders, andPerversions0 is a frequently used summary of the commonly agreed-uponcharacteristics. It states Full blown cases of obsessive-compulsivestates present a dynamic equilibrium in which obsessive preoccupation withego-alien fantasies... are precariously balanced by rituals representing anexaggeration of social standards, such as cleanliness, punctuality,consideration for others. The dynamic formula is similar to bookkeeping inwhich on the one side of ledger are the asocial tendencies which thepatient tries to balance precisely on the other side with moralistic andsocial attitudes... Every asocial pass away must be undone by an opposingone... The term ego-alien refers to thoughts, emotions or material whichare consciously detestable to the patient (though not he whitethorn notnecessarily be conscious of the reason). This summary is important, and wewill return to it later. Rockefeller was born in 1839 and raised in a troubled, th en broken, home.His father, who sold emit quick-heal ailment medicines, was often awayfor months at a time. Rockefeller was raised essentially by his mother.Eventually his father consummated a bigamous marriage with a teenageCanadian and left Rockefeller and his mother and siblings. At an early age, it became apparent that young John was not quite likethe other children. For instance, he adamantly refused to play with otherchildren unless he could choose the game. In almost every description ofhim as a child, he is often described as idea. He married LauraCelestia Spelman, a girl who was strikingly similar to his mother, which isnever a good sign and when he decided to go into business, he borrowed$ super C from his father- at ten percent interest.