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Sometimes frustration with other people not doing what the OCPD individual wants spills over into anger and even violence. This is known as Disinhibition.
Khomeini's Symptoms:
In order to be able to establish a clear diagnosis for the Ayatollah we have to examine his life and see if he manifested the symptoms that are mentioned in DSMIV-TR. Since many of Khomeini's students and family members have written extensively about the habits of Ayatollah Khomeini, we have access to an abundance of evidence for his condition. Interestingly, the reports of Khomeini's character by different people with very different backgrounds are so similar that it makes our diagnostic work-up quite easy.
1. He had a fear of germs and he was compulsively clean. His daughter*5 reports that whenever she gave him his medication, he would take his pills with a spoon rather than with his hand, so that his medication did not get dirty. He used a spoon to eat bread, which is simply unheard of among us Iranian devout bread eaters.
2. He had several routines, which were widely known. For example, whenever he was sitting down on the floor the way that we do in the Middle East, he would only use his left hand as an anchor on the floor to get up. He would never use the right hand.*8
3. He always walked on the right side of the pedestrian walkway.*8
4. He would always enter a room or step on a pulpit using only his left foot first. He would exit with the right foot.*8
5. The routines of the day were so regimented that the members of the family would organize their daily activity based on Khomeini's behavior using Khomeini as a clock. For example, their household maid reported that on the days that she was cooking rice for everybody, she would get started with the task when she would see that Khomeini was done with the morning studying.*8
6. Perfect Punctuality: In the mosques, temples and the shrines, many people have reported how they could use him as a clock because of his precise routines. He was so cautious with time that when he returned from his daily walks out, if he was ten seconds early he would walk an extra 10 seconds in the yard before entering.*3*7
7. Khomeini was extremely frugal. His argument was that the money that he had actually was the money which had been collected to be spent for religious purposes and he did not have a right to it. Consequently, he would keep his expenses very low. However, a deeper look at this behavior shows that he handled finances with extreme precision and at times was unreasonably demanding. For example, his household servant reported that when they were living in Iraq he had given him a couple of dinars (each dinar was equivalent to three dollars) to go to the store to buy groceries. When he came back with the groceries he gave Khomeini his change and before he got to the door Khomeini screamed at him that it was half a Flous short (that is less than one-tenth of a penny).*8
8 The religious rituals were so important for him, that he would compromise very important events to complete minor noncompulsory rituals of Friday*19
9. Ayatollah Montazeri reported that when Khomeini's book "Resaleh" was published, he got a copy from Khomeini when he was at Khomeini's house. He had to argue with the old man because he was insisting to be paid ten Tomans (one dollar and thirty cents).*10
10. Cleanliness. He changed his outside attire as soon as he was back in the house to keep the germs out. Khomeini's daughter reports that Khomeini had a study room for himself and he would use so many perfumes and colognes that whenever she would go in his room she felt that she was going into paradise. He is also reported as saying that ladies are mischievous and they kept all the good things to themselves, especially the perfumes. Six or seven times a day he used cologne to smell better and make the room smell better.*4
11. When they were living in Iraq, which is quite hot, it took a long time before he permitted the family to get a fan. He actually refused air conditioning as a gift because of the money it would use for electricity. The mannerisms of expenditure of money for him and the rest of the family were astonishingly poor. The places that he rented to live in Qum or in Najaf were badly run down and cheap.*7 One should keep in mind that Ayatollahs at his level receive thousands of dollars a day from their followers for different religious reasons. Also, since they have hundreds of visitors a day they usually have houses, which are quite large, and have two sections in internal part for the family and the external part for receiving visitors. Some people interpret his frugal behavior as a religious mannerism in which he did not want to be involved in worldly materials.*7
However, we know for a fact that when he arrived in Tehran from Najaf, people who were going to see him had to see his brother-in-law first and make donations of millions of dollars for a few minutes of audience. He did not dislike money; he just didn't want to spend it. Like other people with his condition, money was hoarded for future catastrophes.*8
12. Khomeini was extremely critical of others and intolerant of bad behavior from kids and peasants to the king himself. He was specifically critical of people in a position of authority. They were always hearing his nagging criticism. The last one of the victims of this crude criticism was President Carter who just didn't know what to do with him. At the time of hostage crisis Carter needed to resolve the hostage situation very badly. There was tremendous amount of pressure on him to do it.
