Negative Sanctioning Of Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD)

One of my favorite TV shows, the American comedy-drama “Monk” is about a detective who suffers from a variety of different phobias and has an extreme case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I love the show because despite how people treat and view this detective, he still manages to crack tough investigations and his determination triumphs over everything else.

In this show the detective, Adrian Monk, experiences mainly negative informal sanctions. Sanctions can be negative, positive, formal and informal. Sanctions are basically how people react towards someone’s behavior or appearance either approvingly or disapprovingly, representing the positive and negative. Rules, laws or regulations back formal sanctions and an individual can either be punished or rewarded. Informal sanctions are the ways in which people spontaneously react towards an individual’s appearance or behavior, and this is what can be generally applied to Detective Monk.

Detective Monk, also known as Mr. Monk, has over 300 different phobias, of course this is exaggerated, but it shows how different people handle different scenarios and what people regard as normal and abnormal. Overall Mr. Monk is a “neat freak” and a “perfectionist” and cannot bear to see a painting askew or a speck of dust on a glass surface. People usually stare at his incredulous behavior or if he continually does the same thing the negative sanctions generally increase.

People tend to get even more annoyed when an individual continues to carry out their abnormal behavior. However this is entertaining for people watching the show, in reality it is far from amusing.

Although for Mr. Monk there is a reason for his OCD, the murder of his wife, people neither understand nor empathize with him, and still continue to treat him negatively. This just shows that no matter what circumstance an individual is facing, people will still continue to sanction them.


The show “Monk” completed its eighth season in December 2009, much to my dismay. I will still remain a fan of Monk, even though it has stopped airing on TV. “Monk” provided a good example of the way people sanction deviant behavior, despite whatever made them act deviant.