Mental Obsession: An Analysis Based on Nietzschean Concepts of Ressentiment and Bad Conscience

Mental obsession means repeated, unwanted, uncontrollable thoughts which causes unusual anxiety and makes one do obsessive actions, in response. These actions seem to reduce anxiety and be protective; However, not only they do not cure, but also they sicken more by acting as a self-attacking force: Obsessive actions do not come from a will to rehabilitate, but from a will to retaliate. Mental obsession is usually known as a disorder or desease, and it’s regarded and interpreted from a psychiatrical or psychological perspective; But free from these perspectives, this article conducts a philosophical analysis of mental obsession based on “ressentiment” and “bad conscience” –key concepts of Nietzsche’s Geneology of Morals. As a result of this analysis, what underlie mental obsession are instinctive forces that can not discharge themselves outwardly and thus, turn inwards; they create and employ a bad conscience, in order to attack the owner of themselves –the patient.