Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

?
Lv 4
? asked in Arts & HumanitiesPhilosophy · 1 decade ago

Does the phrase 'the contradiction of healthy obsessions' make sense?

Does the phrase 'the contradiction of healthy obsessions' make sense?

I can't seem to wrap my mind around it. The contradiction of actually having an obsession that is 'healthy?' Or something that contradicts 'healthy obsession?' What's your take on it?

6 Answers

Relevance
  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    That statement is either claiming that "healthy obsessions" is a contradiction.

    Or, "the contradiction of healthy obsessions" = "unhealthy obsessions"

  • ?
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    It is a syntactical conundrum first of all... What it is actually saying is, -- 'there is a contradiction existent as indicated in the phrase, "healthy obsession."

    'Thought strange because, obsession typically connotes something that is 'not' healthy to have.

    But let's think about this using a causal perspective: you are healthy to bear an obsession if you otherwise are completely severed from what would be wisest and healthiest to give attention to. In this way, having an obsession is having a mitigator, a regulator, a grounding device to ensure alignment or balance or both. And 'that'...'is'...healthy to have. It implies that there is indicated in the individual "self-reliance," not solely depending on some outside authority or source.

    The other aspect is this. Too far a pull in one direction requires an equal and opposite pull in the other direction. A wholly aloof person is not as frowned upon as a person who is an obsessed person -- though a wholly aloof person can be in itself an example of a person who is obsessive.

    See? It is a syntactical loop; a circle; a lateral Cycle; apparently having differing episodes, yes, but occuring under the selfsame theme or, say, umbrella. Because the idea would be to either discard the umbrella or get in out of the rain.

    But again, this is not the popular understanding of obsession, which intimates that, well, here, an obsessed person is someone who is outside of it, off the charts, wholly fixated. And in that understanding, there is surely an oxymoron indicated -- in which there is an event or entity that happened or manifested, which is at first impossibe to occur, because the one neutralizes the other from possibly existing in the first place.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    It seems [Healthy obsessions] is the main subject, and [contradiction] is the description of the main subject.

    This would lead me to believe that in some way [Healthy obsessions] may not be so healthy, as the implication is there are arguments that [contradict] a [healthy obsession]. Meaning the possiblity for an obsession that is positive may not be possible -according to this statement-.

  • 1 decade ago

    Where did you get this phrase? The context is really important.

    As hard as it is for you to believe, I find that this statement does make sense in certain contexts. Obsession, more or less means having a fixation on something, but often with negative overtones, and having a fixation on something, although it is can be considered to be "unhealthy," isn't always necessarily the case. For example, one off the top of my head, a teenage guy can be "obsessed" with girls and sex, but this does not necessarily make it "unhealthy."

    People can have "obsessions," which can be "healthy," although not always quite as animalistic and instinctual as my aforementioned example, that can contradict some even other "healthy" "obsessions," thus creating "the contradiction of healthy obsessions."

  • How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
  • A P
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    I can only think it should have read; the contradiction of health obsessions. But even that's a bit vague.

  • 1 decade ago

    The problem is probably with the word contradicition.

    Think healthy obsessions and how they contradict something like say thinking or having spare time idk...

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.