The Obsessive Mind

The Obsessive Mind offers a well-defined and comprehensive understanding of obsessive-compulsive disorder and its treatment model. Based on the results of current research, the book offers a psychological perspective on the disorder, a complete presentation of useful strategies and techniques that can be implemented in therapy, and work that can be done with family members of OCD patients, all proposed coherently with the theoretical model of the disorder. It also illustrates the pivotal role of moral goals as proximal psychological determinants of the obsessive symptomatology. The Obsessive Mind can be used by new clinicians to become acquainted with the theory and treatment of OCD, as well as more advanced clinicians to improve their OCD treatment skills and learn new interventions and ways to get out of deadlock in treatment and thereby increase efficacy.

Francesco Mancini is director of the Quadrennial Postgraduate Specialisation Schools in Cognitive-Behaviour Psychotherapy Associazione di Psicologia Cognitiva APC and Scuola di Psicoterapia Cognitiva srl SPC, and full professor of clinical psychology at Guglielmo Marconi University, Rome. He is the past-president of the Italian Society of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapy (SITCC).

List of Contributors Foreword Acknowledgements Introduction Part 1 Psychological Explanation of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder 1. The Characteristics of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and the Questions it Raises 2. Goals and Beliefs, Proximate Determinants of Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms 3. Cognitive Processes in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder 4. Answers to the Questions Raised by Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder 5. Cognitive Deficits and Obsessive-Comulsive Disorder 6. Vulnerability in Obsessive-Comulsive Disorder Part 2 Psychological Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder 7. Introduction to the Therapy: The Rationale of the Intervention 8. Constructing a Diagrammatic Model for Understanding the Disorder: Objectives, Procedure, Difficulties 9. Techniques of Cognitive Restructuring 10. Disgust and Contamination: Cognitive Anti-Disgust Interventions 11. Accepting Risk: Cognitive Techniques 12. Exposure with Response Prevention as a Practice of Acceptance 13. Mindfulness for the Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder 14. Intervention to Reduce Current Vulnerability to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder 15. Interventions on Historical Vulnerability 16. Preventing Relapses and Concluding Therapy 17. The Role of Family Members in the Maintenance of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Psychoeducation and Psychotherapy 18. Treatment Traps: Underlying Beliefs and Goals and Solutions References Index