Most of our everyday lives is irrational in some sense I suppose and kissing a photograph sounds fine to me.
By irrational rituals I was thinking of things like:
- not standing on pavement cracks because you'll get eaten by bears - leaping into bed from a long way away so the tigers underneath won't get you - making bargains like "If I touch every railing all the way down the street then it will be a good day" - kissing a photograph every morning to ensure that you won't get run over on the way to work - sacrificing a goat every Thursday so that the crops will be good, [despite knowing rationally that goats and weather patterns are not related in a simple way]
ie, linking the repeated performance of an action to something it's really not related to at all EVEN THOUGH YOU KNOW THIS. Most people do this sometimes, especially in childhood, but even if it's not taken to OCD-like extremes, it still has a cost.
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Most of our everyday lives is irrational in some sense I suppose and kissing a photograph sounds fine to me.
By irrational rituals I was thinking of things like:
- not standing on pavement cracks because you'll get eaten by bears
- leaping into bed from a long way away so the tigers underneath won't get you
- making bargains like "If I touch every railing all the way down the street then it will be a good day"
- kissing a photograph every morning to ensure that you won't get run over on the way to work
- sacrificing a goat every Thursday so that the crops will be good, [despite knowing rationally that goats and weather patterns are not related in a simple way]
ie, linking the repeated performance of an action to something it's really not related to at all EVEN THOUGH YOU KNOW THIS. Most people do this sometimes, especially in childhood, but even if it's not taken to OCD-like extremes, it still has a cost.