Description: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is currently the subject of considerable research, since recent epidemiological studies have suggested that the condition is more prevalent than was originally believed. This book offers a critical discussion of the most important theories that have been put forward to explain this disorder. The book includes behavioral/learning accounts (and cognitive-behavioral supplements of these), accounts based on Pavlovian personality theories (such as those by Eysenck, Gray, and Claridge), Pierre Janet's account, cybernetic approaches, psychodynamic approaches, Reed's "cognitive-structural" account, and biological approaches. Therapeutic approaches to the disorder are also considered, insofar as they are relevant to these theories.
Review Quotes: "To the credit of the author, Theoretical Approaches to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder offers a seminal approach to the definition and classification of OCD...This book is sound, highly valuable, and a significant evaluation of OCD. This small volume is certainly worthy of review and study in clinical practitioners' libraries as a reference. The author has presented a highly logical and reasonably scientific contribution to clinical psychology. The evaluation in and of itself is rational, well-written, soundly documented, with subject and author indices very adequate...I am truly pleased to speak well of Theoretical Approaches to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder by Ian Jakes. In my judgment it is a book that contributes greatly to psychological literature." Contemporary Psychology