[Psychoanalytic and clinical prospects of obsessive disorders]

Is there a possible meeting-point between the psychoanalytical views of obsessive neurosis and the purely descriptive approach to symptoms, i.e. the biological, cognitive or behavioral explanations of symptoms? Obviously, it is impossible to dream of a general consensus since the processes concerned by the various therapeutic methods are not alike. What would be, for a behavior specialist, the value of discussing the reality of the primitive scene so dear to psychoanalysts? What would be, for a psychoanalyst, the value of discussing the comparative merits of the several conditioning methods? A confrontation is possible only in those fields that are common to all the parties. In this report two of these have been selected: the debate on the genesis of obsessive disorders (are they psychogenetic or organogenetic?) and the clinical study. Today's psychoanalysis discuss the first subject only sparingly, but Freud has given it much thought and it is surprising to find out to what extent his thought is in agreement with the current trends. As to the second subject, there is obviously a possibility for confrontation of the various views, since, regarding obsessive disorders, psychoanalysis provides a psychopathological model suitable for clinical practice and allowing the synthesis of the various manifestations to be made and the behavioral dynamics to be understood. I shall try to show how this model can be used profitably, even if one is ignorant of, or not familiar with, psychoanalytical metapsychology.