Orgonophilia

Orgonophilia is an abnormal and persistent obsession with filing cabinets or other organisational storage vessels. The word "orgonophilia" is an English adoption of the Greek words á½„ργανον meaning tool and φιλíα meaning friendship. Literally translated it means, "a love of being organised".

Definition

Orgonophilia describes a condition where the sufferer becomes uneasy in environments that are unfamiliar or where he/she perceives that events are beyond their control. Triggers may include anxiety about forthcoming events, the prospect of making an address to, or performing before a large group of influential or critical minds. The anxiety is often compounded by a fear of not being able to have a decisive influence upon events or persuade people who hold a contrary view. People who suffer from orgonophilia may experience panic attacks in situations where they feel thwarted, insignificant, or caught up in a sequence of events that has no logical order or directing hand. However, orgonophiliacs can experience sudden panic attacks when confronted with a diverse range of disfunctionality including loose papers, split infinitives, unfinished sentences, flat batteries and incorrectly addressed letters. In most cases, the anxieties of an orgonophiliac will subside once a filing cabinet is placed into their line of sight. In extreme cases, the sufferer will require physical contact with the cabinet.

Prevalence

Occurrences of orgonophilia are largely confined to urbanised, westernised populations where familiarity with and access to filing cabinets is most heavily concentrated. The prevalence of the condition in the general population of the European Union is limited to approximately 1:750,000. In the United States, it is approximately 1:800,000. There are no reliable statistics for other regions of the globe. The condition occurs about three times as commonly among men as it does among women.

Causes and contributing factors

Research has uncovered a link between orgonophilia and difficulties with trichromatic colour vision. Normal individuals are able to observe and categorise the colourful world around them. However, a disproportionate number of orgonophiliacs suffer from some degree of colour blindness and a hypothesis has been put forward suggesting that the inability to differentiate objects on the basis of colour leads to hyperactivity in the brain and an irrational pursuit of order, sequence and classification. Research has also discovered that may orgonophiliacs may be confused by sloping or irregular surfaces.

Association with panic attacks

The attack typically has an abrupt onset, building to maximum intensity within 10 to 15 minutes, and rarely lasts longer than 30 minutes. These symptoms include palpitations, sweating, trembling, and shortness of breath. Many patients report a fear of dying, or losing control of emotions or behaviour.

Treatments

Orgonophilia can be successfully treated in many cases through a slow process of graduated exposure therapy whereby the patient is encouraged to seek solace with ever smaller filing cabinets. Combined with cognitive therapy, many orgonophiliacs are able to conduct normal lives with the assistance of nothing more than a filing cabinet shaped novelty key fob.

Alternative theories

There is a large body of theory within the scientific community that does not believe that orgonophilia exists as a distinct personality disorder but is probably a condition closely related to agoraphobia or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Orgonophiliacs

*When working on a film set, Welsh actor Richard Burton would insist upon being able to see a filing cabinet during any scene in which he was performing. However, it is curious that when he performed live on stage, his condition was dormant and he did not need the assistance of a filing cabinet.

*Field Marshall Alan Brooke, who was Chief of the Imperial General Staff during the Second World War, was a notable orgonophiliac. During his time as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Brooke had frequent rows with Winston Churchill over strategy that would trigger an orgonophilic episode. In order to recover, Brooke took to sharing his bed with a three-drawer, oak Globe Wernicke filing cabinet. When Brook accompanied Churchill abroad, it was impossible for him to take his beloved Globe Wernicke with him. However, he was able to find succour when asleep with a single-drawer card index system.

*ITN journalist Leonard Parkin read the news with both feet firmly planted in a drawer taken from a grey metal Bisley side filer.

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