Psychopathology of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Phenomenological Approach

• Published in: Psychopathology 2005-11, Vol.38 (6), p.291-300
• Main Author: Buergy, M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Affect; Anxiety disorders. Neuroses; Biological and medical sciences; Diagnosis, Differential; History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; Humans; Medical sciences; Models, Psychological; Nosology. Terminology. Diagnostic criteria; Obsessive compulsive disorder; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - diagnosis; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - history; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - physiopathology; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - psychology; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - therapy; Obsessive-compulsive disorders; Original Paper; Personality; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychotherapy; Techniques and methods
• ISSN: 0254-4962; 1423-033X
• DOI: 10.1159/000088917

Until the beginning of the 20th century, the idea of obsession found in the literature was mostly a broad and unspecific one, and it has, to some extent, persisted in this form until the present day. At the same time, however, Esquirol and Westphal began to develop a concept of obsession in the strict sense, and Jaspers used the phenomenological method as a basis to give it its final form. The concept of obsession in the strict sense represents the formal and nosologically specific core symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder. In conjunction with the distinction between primary and secondary obsessions, obsession in the strict sense is proving helpful in differential diagnosis, but it can also serve as a guideline in the further phenomenological investigation of obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is shown how the interaction between personality, affect and release situation develops the obsessive-compulsive disorder. The clarification of these aspects with the patient can at the same time be the starting point of psychotherapeutic treatment.