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The Role of Thought Suppression in the Development of Obsessions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2004

Amy Hardy  and
Chris R. Brewin
Amy Hardy
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK
Chris R. Brewin
Affiliation:
University College London, UK
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Abstract

A literature search yielded no studies investigating Wegner's (1989) proposal that repeated suppression attempts and rebound opportunities (indulgence cycles) lead to an escalation of intrusions, providing a mechanism whereby an unwanted intrusive thought may develop into a clinical obsession. It was predicted, based on Wegner's (1994) ironic process theory of mental control, that individuals high in trait obsessionality would exhibit an increase in thought frequency as a function of indulgence cycle and that those low in trait obsessionality would display a corresponding decrease in thought frequency. Participants (N=40) were asked to suppress and then express a personally relevant obsessive intrusive thought through two indulgence cycles. There was no significant escalation in thoughts across indulgence cycles for the high obsessionality group, but the low obsessionality group were significantly more successful at suppression. The results confirm previous research suggesting that trait obsessionality has an impact upon the effectiveness of thought suppression.

Keywords

Thought suppressionindulgence cyclesobsessions
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , January 2005 , pp. 61 - 69
Copyright
2005 British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies

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