Howard Hughes and Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder Shown at the controls of his Spruce Goose aircraft, Hughes was an extraordinary aviator, engineer, inventor, and film producer and director. But Hughes was also tormented by his obsessive fear of germs, which could be traced back to his childhood. Hughes’s mother was constantly fearful that her son would catch polio or be sickened by germs. As an adult, Hughes developed increasingly extreme and bizarre compulsions, such as sitting naked for weeks in “germ free zones” in darkened hotel rooms and wearing tissue boxes on his feet. By the time Hughes died, he was a mentally ill recluse, emaciated, and a drug addict (Bartlett & Steele, 2004; Dittman, 2005).

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