Lady Macbeth's OCD And Guilt Washing

Lady Macbeth’s OCD and Guilt Washing
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth there are a myriad of mental illnesses associated into the characters of the play, in particular with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. For Lady Macbeth, her illness is OCD. This is an incurable but treatable illness in which a person feels like they have the need to perform a certain behavior or something horrible might happen. After Macbeth had gone to war, she had exhibited these behaviors performing various actions such as reading and trying to cleanse her hands of imaginary blood. The trauma of assisting in committing a murder has given her a compulsive desire to wash her hands to try to ease her guilt pangs. With more knowledge of this disorder in the past, it would’ve been very simple
The most effective forms of treatment for OCD is Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Medication. The most effective treatment more specifically is a type of CBT called Exposure and Response Prevention or ERP. This is performed at first in front of a therapist and eventually the patient will learn to do it on their own. The Patient first exposes him or herself to the fears and obsessions and then chooses not to give into the compulsive behavior once the fears have been triggered. This is different from regularly trying to confront the anxiety and obsessions because with the patient trying it on their own, their anxiety only skyrockets. According to the International OCD Foundation, “With ERP, the difference is that when you make the choice to confront your anxiety and obsessions you must also make a commitment to not give in and engage in the compulsive behavior. When you don’t do the compulsive behaviors, over time you will actually feel a drop in your anxiety level. This natural drop in anxiety that happens when you stay “exposed” and “prevent” the compulsive “response” is called habituation.”
If Lady Macbeth was treated by the Doctor with methods today, she wouldn’t have had the anxiety consume her and push her to committing suicide. Something as basic as ERP could’ve helped her recover and although the guilt of murder won’t go away, it would be controlled. Also if the traumatic experience had never occurred, Lady Macbeth would be perfectly healthy. It is the guilt what she did that pushed her over the edge into OCD and madness. She kept telling herself “Banquo’s Buried, he cannot come out on ’s grave” (Shakespeare, p403), to try to self treat herself, but in the end she got what she deserved. As the play stated, the dead sleep peacefully while the alive