Reddit reviews My Inventions and Other Writings

I was reading an interview with Maria Bamford where she name dropped the book "Tormenting Thoughts and Secret Rituals". I was fully compelled to buy it once I found out that the author of it also suffers from OCD, and it shows in how he writes the book. He writes from the perspective of a couple of case studies, always keeping things interesting, and it's a great read. I'd definitely reccomend it. It also covers a bit of the history of ocd, some of which is about religious figures (scrupulosity was VERY prominent in certain famous Christian figures) and the various theories of what causes ocd.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0440508479/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

I'd also reccomend a funny memoir written by a college-age sufferer, it's just an enjoyable read. He details his bout with ocd in college and it's very witty.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0312622104/ref=pd_aw_sims_5?pi=SY115&simLd=1

And lastly, this may be a bit off topic, but I'd reccomend Nikola Tesla's memoirs. They are a series of 3 or so articles he wrote for an engineering magazine, and in it he gives vivid details of how his obsessive thoughts inspired him to become an abstract thinker who could, essentially, build a machine in his head. He clearly suffered from OCD, probably Pure-O and social anxiety. He talks about having intrusive thoughts, and I found it so fascinating that I had many of the same daydreams that he has (he talks about wanting to project his mental images on a screen, I feel like OCD caused me to have the same wish), and it was awesome and startling.

This is the version I got. Found it in Barnes and Noble. Make sure to check that the one you get has the original text, some books use altered text and have spelling mistakes. I've found that this version of the memoirs has original text with a nice intro, though it also does not include the diagrams from the original articles (though they're all online anyways). I'd reccomend this version for sure.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0143106619?cache=01fd22648c4f493c36b2eaf0e89ced91&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1408880250&sr=1-2#ref=mp_s_a_1_2

Here are two quotes from it I love:
"I am credited with being one of the hardest workers and perhaps I am, if thought is the equivalent of labour, for I have devoted to it almost all of my waking hours. But if work is interpreted to be a definite performance in a specified time according to a rigid rule, then I may be the worst of idlers."

"Every effort under compulsion demands a sacrifice of energy. I never paid such a price."

Happy Reading!