Wow, two months without a post, time flies, and I have no swatter. I could write about what it feels like to fumble through a hundred mile labyrinth with just a candle, but even I wouldn’t want to read that. It’s more like waiting to ambush words that come near my ears, stalking phrases and syllables, striking, tearing into them to rip out whatever meaning they have, and then disemboweling them across the page . . . thus spoke the vegan poet.
Below is another response to a Quora post I gave that I liked to a question someone who asked me to give an answer. I think I’ve done most of those compulsive behaviors…
Question: What are some examples of compulsive behavior exhibited by people? For example – nail biting, washing hands frequently. Are there any other such behaviors that people generally don’t talk about or are lesser known?
My response:
If you asked this question to a behaviorist (a particular school of thought in psychology made popular in the early twentieth century by rock stars such as Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, and B.F. Skinner), they might say all behavior is compulsive. By compulsive, I assume you mean beyond one’s control, obligatory, or stemming from an irresistible urge. Radical behaviorists would reject the notion of free will, deeming all learning to be the result of environment and that we come into the world with a blank slate (i.e., Tabula Rasa). There would be no need for them to distinguish “compulsive behavior,” as you suggest it, because there could be no other alternative.
For the indeterminists out there, others who have answered this question have already pointed out that the list of compulsive behaviors is near inexhaustible. In line with that, I will add that any action performed by us that seems to undermine our volition could fall under the umbrella term “compulsive behavior.” They could include:
1) Excessive blinking
2) Joint popping
3) Not walking on cracks in the sidewalk, or only walking on cracks in the sidewalk
4) Making a certain number of steps between concrete tiles
5) Licking one’s lips
6) Pacing
7) Tapping one’s finger, foot, or a pencil
8) Checking one’s appearance reflected in every mirror, window, or puddle
9) Adjusting one’s clothing
10) Making sure that every list one makes has exactly ten items on it…
11) … or is a prime number
12) … or has a dozen items so that it can be mapped onto any sexagesimal time system
14) Triskaidekaphobia
“Locus of control,” from personality psychology, is something worth mentioning here. People who have an external locus of control generally believe that external factors, or outside forces, control the events that happen to them. Contrarily, people who have an internal locus of control generally believe that they have control over the events that happen to them.
Someone adhering to an extreme external locus of control would likely be more in line with behaviorists, and some might even believe in destiny or fate and hold that all behavior is compulsive. However, this would become sticky real fast in a court of law if a defendant’s excuse for committing murder was that a ladybug landed on the windowsill, signaled that three people had to die today, and it could not be otherwise.
Contrarily, someone adhering to an extreme internal locus of control would likely flat out reject that compulsive behavior exists, even in situations that appear beyond one’s control, such as controlling the weather or persuading someone to buy something they don’t need. Unless you’re actively engaged in cloud-seeding, or are a salesperson who doesn’t know the meaning of the word no, it’s difficult to maintain that kind of zealotry in the face of so much indifference to one’s every whim.