Obsessive–Compulsive Disorders

Summary & key facts

This open-access book describes a psychodrama method made for obsessive–compulsive disorders. It explains how therapists use simple stage setups to make obsessive thoughts and compulsive acts visible and separate from the person. The book also aims to link psychodramatic techniques to specific mental disorders and to explain how those techniques work in therapy.

Key facts:

• The therapy starts by developing the patient’s sense of self at the symptom level (working directly with the patient’s obsessions and compulsions).
• Obsessive thoughts are externalized and symbolized as a “tormenting spirit,” often represented on the stage by a chair and a hand puppet.
• Compulsive actions are symbolized by a second chair that stands for the patient’s self-protective behaviors against the “tormenting spirit.”
• The therapist may take the role of a doppelganger to support and empower the patient during the enactment.
• The book is Volume 4 of the Psychodrama in Counselling, Coaching and Education series and is published as an open-access book in 2024.
• A key aim of the book is to connect specific psychodramatic procedures to particular mental disorders and to describe the creative mentalizing activities used in therapy; the foreword notes this focus responds to a prior lack of detailed, d

Abstract

Abstract The disorder-specific psychodrama therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorders begins by developing the patient’s self at the symptom level . The patient symbolizes his current obsessive thoughts (his sadistic superego), as a ‘tormenting spirit’ to which he is exposed, with a chair and a hand puppet on the object level . The compulsive actions are symbolized with another chair as self-protection against the threat of the ‘tormenting spirit’. As a doppelganger, the therapist empowers the patient to develop a relationship with his ‘tormenting spirit’ in a progressive way on the level of play, similar to child therapy, and thus to gain ego control over his masochistic self-censorship. At some point, the patient discovers on his own the inner conflicts that cause his obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The basis of the therapy is the resolution of the patient’s metacognitive confusion through separate external symbolization of the three involved metacognitive processes (ego-states) with chairs. These are his masochistic, self-injurious thinking, his self-protection through adaptation, and his healthy adult thinking. The presented action methods can qualitatively enrich the depth psychological, behavioral, and systemic therapy psychotherapy of obsessive-compulsive disorders.

Topics

Personality Disorders and Psychopathology Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy

Categories

Clinical Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Action (physics) Cognition Confusion Id, ego and super-ego Metacognition Obsessive compulsive Physics Psychiatry Psychoanalysis Psychodrama Psychology Psychotherapist Quantum mechanics