It was the general belief in 14th, 15th, and 16th century Europe that those who experienced blasphemous, sexual or other obsessive thoughts were possessed by the Devil. Based on this reasoning, treatment involved banishing the "evil" from the "possessed" person through exorcism.
Today the community of scientists studying obsessive-compulsive disorder is split into two factions disagreeing over the illness's cause. One side believes that obsessive-compulsive behavior is a psychological disorder; the other side thinks it has a neurological origin.
The Stanford University School of Medicine OCD webpage states, "Although the causes of the disorder still elude us, the recent identification of children with OCD caused by an autoimmune response to Group A streptococcal infection promises to bring increased understanding of the disorder's pathogenesis."
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