num_pages: 528
description: From the cover flaps:The obsessive-compulsive neurosis is one of the most difficult and frustrating therapeutic problems a therapist faces. In this challenging and wide-ranging study, Leon Salzman takes a fresh, clear look, not only at the obsessive-compulsive neurosis and its underlying character structure, but at the whole process of its treatment.Obsessive compulsive behavior is an attempt to maintain the illusion of control over functioning. The obsessional technique, through its elaborate devices of avoiding commitment and decision, protects the individual from feelings of failure, imperfection, and human fallibility. If verbal devices fail, then the ritual - with its magical possibilities of overcoming human limitations - attempts to guarantee control. If that fails too, the individual can then develop phobias, thereby avoiding any encounter with threatening situations.Dr. Salzman shows how to understand this common yet challenging patient in this revised and greatly expanded version of his now classic The Obsessive Personality. The present volume includes a full-length case study that documents the difficulties encountered in treating these disorders. The entire course of therapy is presented unedited and unaltered except to avoid excessive repetition. The discussion of this case will be crucial to every therapist who confronts the arduous and often discouraging task of treating this condition. This book will enable the reader to:-Recognize the function of obsessional patterns in the normal person as well as in the neurotic or psychotic-Understand the role obsessional behavior plays in compulsive states such as phobia, obesity, kleptomania, and alcoholism-Formulate therapeutic goals and implement an effective treatment plan for the obsessional character-Handle the specific problems (particularly the defensive patterns) arising in the treatment of the obsessional individual: distraction, evasion, grandiosity, multiple sidetracking, emotional flatness, doubting, ambivalence, avoidance of involvement with the therapist, and intolerance of observation and interpretations.
language: English
title: Treatment of the Obsessive Personality
titlecomplete: Treatment of the Obsessive Personality
ratings_count: 2
publisher: J. Aronson