Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T04:44:53.805Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Some thoughts about obsessional phenomena

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

David A. Freedman
David A. Freedman*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Medical Centre, Houston, Texas 77030, U.S.A.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The author proposes that the propensity to develop obsessional modes of reaction is virtually ubiquitous and, for most people, highly adaptive. As for other parameters of functioning (e.g. blood pressure, blood glucose etc.) there is a range of “obsessionality” which is essential for survival. From the standpoint of the clinician the following questions need to be addressed: (1) Is there a pattern of developmental experiences which can be correlated with the emergence of obsessional phenomena? (2) Are there defineable life circumstances which can be related both to the failure to develop appropriate levels of obsessionality and to the development of a level of obsessionality which is maladaptive? (3) How to distinguish the obsessional character from the individual suffering from an obsessional neurosis? and (4) What therapeutic interventions are likely to be effective in the managment of the obsessional individual?

Keywords

obsessioncompulsionobsessional contractepigenesis
Type
Perspectives
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 1990 , pp. 53 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Sandler, J, Hazari, A. The Obsessional: On the psychological classification of obsessional character traits and symptoms. Br J Med Psychol 1960; 33: 113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2.Unabridged Oxford English dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933.Google Scholar
3.Unabridged Oxford English dictionary. Supplement, Vol. III. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.Google Scholar
4.Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 3rd ed., revised. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association, 1987.Google Scholar
5.A glossary of psychoanalytic terms and concepts. New York: American Psychoanalytic Association, 1967.Google Scholar
6.Freud, S. Obsessional acts and religious practises. 1907. In: Standard edition 9: 117–128. London: Hogarth Press, 1959.Google Scholar
7.Freud, S. Totem and taboo. 1913. In: Standard Edition 13: 1–162. London: Hogarth Press, 1953.Google Scholar
8.New Catholic encyclopedia. Vol XI: 979; Vol. XII: 1253-1255. New York: McGraw Hill Company, 1967.Google Scholar
9.The Catholic encyclopedia. Vol XIII: 640–641. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912.Google Scholar
10.Meissner, WW. Psychoanalysis and Religious Experience. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1984.Google Scholar
11.Freud, S. The future of an illusion. 1927. In: Standard edition 21: 5–56. London: Hogarth Press, 1961.Google Scholar
12.Abraham, K. The anal character In: Jones, E, ed. Selected papers on psychoanalysis. London: Hogarth Press, 1927.Google Scholar
13.Landauer, K. Some Remarks on the formation of the anal-erotic character. Int J Psychoanalysis 1939; 20: 418–425.Google Scholar
14.Glover, E. Developmental study of the obsessional neuroses. Int J Psychoanalysis 1935; 16: 131.Google Scholar
15.Spitz, R. The first year of life. New York: International Universities Press, 1965.Google Scholar
16.Mahler, MS. The psychological birth of the human infant. New York: Basic Books, 1975.Google Scholar
17.Erickson, EH. Childhood and society. New York: WW Norton, 1950.Google Scholar
18.Piaget, J. Judgement and reasoning in the child. Paterson, New Jersey: Littlefield, Adams, 1959.Google Scholar
19.Fraiberg, S. Enlightenment and confusion. Psychoanal Study of the Child 1951; 6: 325–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20.Wulff, M. The problem of neurotic manifestations in children of preoedipal age. Psychoanal Study of the Child 1951; 6: 169–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21.Freedman, DA. On the genesis of obsessional phenomena. Psychoanalytic Review 1971; 58: 367–383.Google ScholarPubMed
22.Spitz, RA. Hospitalism. Psychoanal Study of the Child 1945; 1: 52–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
23.Munich, RL. Transitory symptom formaiton in the analysis of an obsessional character. Psychoanal Study of the Child 1986; 41: 515–536.CrossRefGoogle Scholar