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.

Following the Rules

When someone asks me where I'm from, my response is always the same. I say that I am Sudanese. I never lived in my home country, but I have visited several times. Despite living abroad my whole life, I never really had an identity or culture crisis because I was raised in a Sudanese household by my parents who both taught me everything I need to know about Sudanese culture and tradition. However, simply knowing about a culture was never enough to fit in with the people. I needed to obey the social norms of the society itself or else I would be labeled as a deviant.




The way I act, speak and dress is socially acceptable in Qatar, but all of this changes when I visit Sudan. I have to alter all of these social norms with the conformity of the culture, otherwise it would be regarded as deviance. In sociology, these types of norms that are known as folkways which are the "regular" ways to handle everyday habits. In Qatar my folkways are very different from when I am in Sudan. For example, I'm used to speaking English most of the time with my friends, but as soon as I'm around my family or other Sudanese I switch to my own colloquial Arabic. I also tend to dress differently and modestly by wearing a headscarf to abide with the culture and the people. Seldom would you find a Sudanese woman in Sudan not wearing a scarf. The headscarf is a symbol of religion, but the role of religion is so significant that it has influenced culture which makes it hard to distinguish between the two. What's interesting is that even women that are not Muslim wear the headscarf just so they can fit in because it's something that is expected of you as a woman. Here you can observe how people of a certain group that have a certain mentality, social belief and culture have used social control -methods that influence and indirectly force both "members and non-members, to comply with and not deviate from its norms and expectations." If anyone was found to violate any of these social rules, sanctions would be implemented. These can be formal sanctions that are supported by the law, or informal meaning that they can be given anyone in that society and are not supported by the law. Both these forms of sanctions can be negative or positive. An example of a negative informal sanction is when my grandmother giving me a long lecture about speaking Arabic more often because it's my mother tongue and that I'm becoming more of a western and less of an Arab. Dressing conservatively is required in Sudanese law; therefore if a someone is caught not dressed appropriately they would be dealt with the religious police.




Similarly to Sudan, Qatar is a Muslim and Arab country, but I don't apply these social norms because in the end it is not my culture. For example Qatari women wear the abaya in their home country but not necessarily when they travel. However, if I don't wear accordingly to tradition no one would care simply because I'm not Qatari and therefore these unwritten social rules do not apply to me. That is why when I'm not in Sudan I don't feel the need to follow the rules. This social pressure that I experience is a form of social control that forces me to dress accordingly modestly according to my culture, religion and family. In the end it is hard to agree on what is considered to be deviant behavior because each society establishes its own conformity that differ from each other, so what might be regarded as deviant in one society could be considered normal in another.

Can We Pause the Norms?

Can we ever say that it is “fine” to break the rules once a year in Doha? Probably yes. On the 18th of December, a maseera takes place annually in Doha, as a celebration to Qatar National Day. A maseera is a name given to the celebration of any big national event, and is usually held alongside the Corniche of Doha. Even though there are very strict rules and regulations regarding traffic violation, this day is considered open to the public. People would do what they normally wouldn’t do on the streets as it deviates away from the norms.



Let’s go back to last year’s maseera. A bunch of friends and I decided that we would actually join the people, and see for ourselves how the place looked like. So we all covered up very well, barely showing our faces, since you know, Qatar is a very small country, and people tend to talk a lot. The whole place around the corniche was decorated with the Qatari flag, representing nationalism.



There were those that showed some level of conformity when it came to road behavior, and others that completely deviated away from it. For instance, after picking up one of the girls, the driver forgot to lock the car doors. While we were stuck in the maseera celebrating inside the car, a random guy wearing a mask runs in the middle of the road heading towards our car, and just opens the door. This is an example of a deviated behavior, and obviously he got very negative sanctions from us. Some were screaming inside the car, and others represented an informal sanction; they just laughed. We did not expect such a behavior since it normally wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for the maseera.



Along with the car shows, some men decided that they would stop their car in the middle of the road, or have someone in the driver’s seat, put their music up loud, and start dancing in front of the car. To anyone, that wouldn’t seem as though it is following a culture’s norm. However, they got informal sanctions from the people around them, and they started laughing. They also got positive sanctions from the people, some even were video taping it. The only reason this is allowed is because this day is open to everyone, and they would usually not get violated for such acts, unless it is more than just a folkway.