This book explores the interrelatedness between obsessive compulsive
disorders, thinking disorders, and depression. The issue is considered
both from a psychiatric viewpoint and from a psychodynamic perspective.
The age of the cases presented in the book ranges from childhood through
adolescence to adulthood. Obsessions: The Twisted Cruelty is a
challenging contribution to contemporary clinical debate, especially
regarding the role of analytically-oriented psychotherapy in the
treatment of OCD, and how to deal with the psychiatric treatment and
combine the two approaches, while keeping the focus on the
transference-countertransference interplay. After the first theoretical
chapter, the relationship between obsessions and thinking impairments is
discussed, with specific reference to delusional ideation. A section
entitled "the anal conundrum" follows. Encopresis and anal masturbation
during childhood are discussed, as well as the identification of the
child with a maternal "faecal object. The last section explores the
connection with depression, and some specific features of sadism.