Mike Lee wrote in his first posting on OCD (29 March): > In talking about OCD today, I described it as a > disorder in which repetitive actions (compulsions) > are essentially reactions to repetitive thoughts (obsessions). > The action (repeating the alphabet over and over) helps > divert thinking away from the frightening or inappropriate > sexual or aggressive impulse, or whatever the case may be.
I discussed this at length (by phone) with a psychiatrist friend, who tells me that for a small subset of sufferers from OCD the individuals in question have (conscious) sexual and aggressive obsessive thoughts which they try to keep at bay by going through repetitive actions. However, there is no good evidence that underlying OCD in general are (unconscious) frightening sexual and aggressive impulses, as other TIPSters have indicated. Mike wrote, in response to previous postings: >I can only tell you that I'm referring to OCD as it is >described in an Intro level textbook (Nairne, et al. 2004). >The citations for the Interpretation I gave are: >Jenike, M.A., Baer, L., & Minichiello, W. E. (Eds.) (1986). >Obsessive-compulsive disorders: Theory and management. >Salkovskis, P.M. (1985). Obsessional compulsive problems: A cognitive >Behavioral analysis. Behavior Research and Therapy, 23, 571-577. It seems odd that Nairne et al (2004) should cite the book edited by Jenike et al (2004) without specifying which authors of chapters in the volume have put forward the psychodynamic explanation in question. My aforementioned informant tells me that the numerous authors of chapters in the book take a wide variety of positions on the cause of OCD, and many, if not most, would not endorse the theory cited by Mike. For an intriguing theory from an evolutionary psychology point of view TIPSters might be interested in reading: Abed, R. T., and de Pauw, K. W., �An Evolutionary Hypothesis for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: A Psychological Immune System?� http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00001147/00/ocd-final.htm A confession: Karel W. de Pauw is my aforementioned "psychiatrist friend"!) Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.human-nature.com/esterson/index.html http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=10 ---------------------------- Mon, 29 Mar 2004 18:07:14 -0600 Author: "Michael Lee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Student Question on OCD > Thanks David and Martha for your replies. > > Perhaps David's response to your question helps Annette? > > I can only tell you that I'm referring to OCD as it is described in an > Intro level textbook (Nairne, et al. 2004). The citations for the > interpretation > I gave are: > > Jenike, M.A., Baer, L., & Minichiello, W. E. (Eds.) (1986). > Obsessive-compulsive > disorders: Theory and management. > > Salkovskis, P.M. (1985). Obsessional compulsive problems: A cognitive > behavioral > analysis. Behavior Research and Therapy, 23, 571-577. > > -Mike --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
