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Understanding Obsessions and Compulsions
Obsessions and compulsive behaviour are gradually being recognised as a problem for many thousands of people. Symptoms include compulsive checking, washing and hoarding, obsessional thoughts and worry, and the depression they can all cause. This book offers sufferers a way out. Anxiety reduction is explained and instructions to help you cope are given in easy to understand language. Self-help suggestions are based on established techniques, and some new approaches are also included. For sufferers from this hidden problem, this book offers a life-line to a new, anxiety-free life.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 24, 1992
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About the author
Frank Tallis
45 books393 followersAka F.R. Tallis.
Dr. Frank Tallis is a writer and clinical psychologist. He has held lecturing posts in clinical psychology and neuroscience at the Institute of Psychiatry and King's College, London. He has written self help manuals (How to Stop Worrying, Understanding Obsessions and Compulsions) non-fiction for the general reader (Changing Minds, Hidden Minds, Love Sick), academic text books and over thirty academic papers in international journals. Frank Tallis' novels are: KILLING TIME (Penguin), SENSING OTHERS (Penguin), MORTAL MISCHIEF (Arrow), VIENNA BLOOD (Arrow), FATAL LIES (Arrow), and DARKNESS RISING (Arrow). The fifth volume of the Liebermann Papers, DEADLY COMMUNION, will be published in 2010. In 1999 he received a Writers' Award from the Arts Council of Great Britain and in 2000 he won the New London Writers' Award (London Arts Board). In 2005 MORTAL MISCHIEF was shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award.
Dr. Frank Tallis is a writer and clinical psychologist. He has held lecturing posts in clinical psychology and neuroscience at the Institute of Psychiatry and King's College, London. He has written self help manuals (How to Stop Worrying, Understanding Obsessions and Compulsions) non-fiction for the general reader (Changing Minds, Hidden Minds, Love Sick), academic text books and over thirty academic papers in international journals. Frank Tallis' novels are: KILLING TIME (Penguin), SENSING OTHERS (Penguin), MORTAL MISCHIEF (Arrow), VIENNA BLOOD (Arrow), FATAL LIES (Arrow), and DARKNESS RISING (Arrow). The fifth volume of the Liebermann Papers, DEADLY COMMUNION, will be published in 2010. In 1999 he received a Writers' Award from the Arts Council of Great Britain and in 2000 he won the New London Writers' Award (London Arts Board). In 2005 MORTAL MISCHIEF was shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 13, 2019
I liked it. It was interesting to read about the different kinds of obsessive and compulsive behavior and helped me to understand my own behaviors a lot better. I even found that I was guilty of a couple more mild forms of compulsive behaviors that I needed to nip in the bud!
August 15, 2019
A good book for people struggling with OCD. A few issues with random typos and diagrams being in the middle with paragraphs making it slightly different to read but you can get around it. It mentions some other symptoms that other books haven't covered like symmetry and obsessive counting.
October 20, 2018
The book's introduction opens with an OED definition of obsession as an 'unreasonably persistent idea in the mind' and then provides a breakdown of the chapter's and the particular elements of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) they cover.
The next chapter cover's obsessions per se and characteristics an individual may exhibit when suffering from obsessive - compulsive personality disorder - i.e. perfectionism, preoccupation with detail, insistence on doing things a particular way, devotion to work, indecisiveness, over conscientiousness, difficulty expressing a range of emotions, lack of generosity (or too much generosity [my add]), inability to discard possessions.
The second chapter covers anxiety and it's manifestations - i.e. I'm principally focusing on thoughts and the behaviour's they lead to. The summary here is that anxiety is a result of an predisposing factors and an individual's learning history. Anxiety is maintained by avoidance and overcome by exposure therapy.
The third chapter draws on the development of obsessions and compulsions as a result of anxiety. The author goes on to describe how may of us suffer with unwanted thoughts / images, although the response of someone exhibiting an obsessive disorder (appraisal being an individual trait and shaped bu that individual's learning history) is that they respond to this stimulus which can result in a strengthening of this thought / image. I was particularly intrigued by the notion that having the obsession may not result in a behavioural (outward) manifestation of a compulsion. It would appear to me that the effects of some (if not all) obsessional thought can be decreased via meditation.
I had to return this book to the library - so an abortive read (to this point at least). Maybe one to re-read on another occasion.
The next chapter cover's obsessions per se and characteristics an individual may exhibit when suffering from obsessive - compulsive personality disorder - i.e. perfectionism, preoccupation with detail, insistence on doing things a particular way, devotion to work, indecisiveness, over conscientiousness, difficulty expressing a range of emotions, lack of generosity (or too much generosity [my add]), inability to discard possessions.
The second chapter covers anxiety and it's manifestations - i.e. I'm principally focusing on thoughts and the behaviour's they lead to. The summary here is that anxiety is a result of an predisposing factors and an individual's learning history. Anxiety is maintained by avoidance and overcome by exposure therapy.
The third chapter draws on the development of obsessions and compulsions as a result of anxiety. The author goes on to describe how may of us suffer with unwanted thoughts / images, although the response of someone exhibiting an obsessive disorder (appraisal being an individual trait and shaped bu that individual's learning history) is that they respond to this stimulus which can result in a strengthening of this thought / image. I was particularly intrigued by the notion that having the obsession may not result in a behavioural (outward) manifestation of a compulsion. It would appear to me that the effects of some (if not all) obsessional thought can be decreased via meditation.
I had to return this book to the library - so an abortive read (to this point at least). Maybe one to re-read on another occasion.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews