Über die Natur der Zwangsvorstellungen und ihre Beziehungen zum Willensproblem

Abstract

Nervenarzt in Mannhelm.11101. Preis Hk. 2.-• . . . Aber al1ch unser aufgeklärtes Zeitalter ist leider nur zu reich an Beispielen dafür, dass Wahnideen ganze Völker in ihren Hann ziehen können. Während dei' aufregenden Dreyfus•Affäre hat kein .Gebildeter die grosse Nation der Franzosen begreifen können. Diese Reihe von Rechtsbeugungen, diese Häufung von Verbrechen, nur, um einen einmal begangenen Rechtsirrtum nicht gutzumachen! Alle Logik war vergebens. Ein Zola musste mit Mühe das nackte Leben retten, weil er der Vernunft und der Gerechtigkeit das Wort redete. Gegen eine Wahnidee sind eben alle Waffen des Geistes machtlos ....

Obsession in the Strict Sense: A Helpful Psychopathological Phenomenon in the Differential Diagnosis between Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Schizophrenia

“…Westphal's view of the affective isolation of the obsessive images suggests once more that he clearly wanted to keep apart from v. KrafftEbing's view. By contrast, subsequent authors such as Friedmann [11] , Kraepelin [18] in his later publications, Störring [19] , and v. Gebsattel [20,21] point to an affective basis of obsession, but do not question the refl exive character of the obsessive images.…”

“…Thus Kraepelin, in the 4th and 5th editions of his Psychiatric Textbook [8,9] , not only subsumed psychotic symptoms such as ego disturbance, delusion, and catatony within obsessivecompulsive disorder, but also failed to distinguish between delusional ideas [5] and obsessive thoughts and overvalued ideas [10] . In the nosological fi eld of the nonpsychotic symptoms, obsession became the umbrella term for phobias, for overvalued ideas, for affects such as rage, anger, or love, for impulsive acts such as suicide, homicide, pyromania, kleptomania, and dromomania, as well as for certain forms of sexuality [3,11] . Taken to an extreme, obsession is for Kronfeld [12] the fi nal stage in a transition series from impetus, impulse, idea, and drive to urge, craving, and obsession, thus a state in which the feeling of activity as such is lost and where sheer defencelessness and suffering are the dominating elements.…”

Psychopathology of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Phenomenological Approach

“…The lower levels, e.g. ego unity (7), are a precondition for the emergence of refl exive phenomena (8). Ego unity means that the I think accompanies all perceptions, images and thoughts, so that mental life is personalized, receiving the quality of 'mine'.…”

“…Obsessive phenomena as refl exive phenomena therefore always have the character of mineness [23] . Refl exivity (8) is the transition to the area of the will and the modifi cation of all immediate experience. It interrupts the spontaneous fl ow of life, thus offering, on the one hand, new possibilities of perceiving and shaping oneself, but on the other hand producing new psychopathological phenomena: (1) the spurious (hysterical phenomena); (2) the derailment of the instincts to the point of derailing body functions (somatoform und dissociative phenomena); (3) obsessive diseases.…”

“…Thus, the 19th century saw hallucinations, emotions and affects converted into obsessive hallucinations, obsessive emotions and obsessive affects. Loewenfeld [1] and Friedmann [7,8] , for example, already identifi ed more than 20 different types of obsession. These included overvalued ideas and phobias, obsessive affects like rage, anger, love, impulsive acts like suicide and homicide, pyromania, kleptomania, dromomania, sexual impulses.…”