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 commonplace Oil magnate who, by the time of hisdeath in 1937, was plausibly worth close to a billion dollars, is perhapsone of the surpass historical examples of an obsessive- haughty. Anobsessive-compulsive is one who is driven to an act or acts, chieflybeing asocial. By his own fixations and by nature of his peculiar header he must balance these actions with others more socially acceptable. There beabundant examples of Rockefellers deeds fitting these clinicalcharacteristics, and John D. Rockefeller is today mostly regarded as anobsessive-compulsive. The roots of this disorder are traceable back to hischildhood. bandage much of Rockefellers business history remains a mysterytoday, it is unmixed that much of his success is attributable to hisobsessive-compulsive disorder. Franz Alexander and Louis B. Shapiros description of the obsessive-compulsive disorder from their book N euroses, Behavior Disorders, andPerversions0 is a frequently used succinct of the commonly agreed-uponcharacteristics. It states Full blown cases of obsessive-compulsivestates present a propelling equilibrium in which obsessive preoccupation withego-alien fantasies... are precariously equilibrize by rituals representing anexaggeration of social standards, such as cleanliness, punctuality,con sideration for others. The energising 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 extend 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 may notnecessarily be conscious of the reason). This summary is important, and we leave alone return to it later. Rockefeller was born in 1839 and raised in a troubled, wherefore br oken, home.His father, who sold quack quick-heal ailment medicines, was often awayfor months at a time. Rockefeller was raised essentially by his baffle.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 sooner 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 thinking. He married LauraCelestia Spelman, a girl who was strikingly similar to his mother, which isnever a skinny sign and when he decided to go into business, he borrowed$1000 from his father- at ten percent interest.