The very common but unrecognized disease of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) has a long and inglorious history—though they didn’t call it that 3000 years ago. They would have called it hubris, because the people who had this disease believed they knew everything and had the gall to try to control everything.

But they also had Anake to help them with this problem. When people recognized the goddess of compulsion and fate, they chilled out and let go of their fantasies of control. But while we might be familiar with Zeus, Apollo, and Dionysus, today we are oblivious to Ananke, and the limits she imposes. But these limits don’t go away.

And in our efforts to avoid them we become diseased.