Abnormal and normal compulsions

• Published in: Behaviour research and therapy Vol. 35; no. 3; pp. 249 - 252
• Main Authors: Muris, Peter, Merckelbach, Harald, Clavan, Michel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.03.1997; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Anxiety disorders. Neuroses; Biological and medical sciences; Compulsive Behavior - classification; Compulsive Behavior - diagnosis; Compulsive Behavior - psychology; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Obsessive Behavior - classification; Obsessive Behavior - diagnosis; Obsessive Behavior - psychology; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - classification; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - diagnosis; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - psychology; Obsessive-compulsive disorders; Personality Assessment - statistics & numerical data; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales - statistics & numerical data; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reference Values; Stereotyped Behavior; Human; Obsessive compulsive disorder; Normal; Comparative study; Rite; Anxiety disorder
• ISSN: 0005-7967; 1873-622X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0005-7967(96)00114-3

Previous research by Rachman and de Silva (1978, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 16, 233–248) and by Salkovskis and Harrison (1984, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 22, 549–552) has shown that abnormal and normal obsessions are similar in content. The present study examined whether the same is true for abnormal and normal rituals. A sample of normal subjects ( N = 150) were asked about their idiosyncratic rituals. A majority of them (54.7%) indicated that they had such rituals. While these rituals were less frequent, less intense, and less often associated with negative affect than the compulsions of a sample of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, differences in terms of content between normal and abnormal rituals were small. Experts often tended to misclassify abnormal compulsions as normal rituals. By and large, the present findings indicate that there is a continuity between abnormal and normal compulsions.