It was believed this type of compulsion could be treated.

We don't endorse or oppose candidates, but we can endorse ballot propositions when there is a moral or ethical issue involved.

I had a compulsion to do it.

there is no compulsion to doing that.

The significant question is whether the activity pursued permits the release of tension without resolving the underlying conflict. If so, the conflict still remains, and hence the activity must be engaged in repeatedly. We then may have the beginning of compulsion neurosis.

The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle.