[Etiology, psychoanalytical diagnosis and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder in childhood and adolescence]

Abstract

An overview of the psychoanalytical and developemental psychological theories about the etiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is given, the most important steps of psychoanalytical diagnosis and the possibilities of psychodynamic treatment are described. The author stresses the importance of the various expressions of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in classical obsessional neurosis and earlier forms of anankastic disorder. He presents the specific therapeutic approaches to the different structural levels of OCD and puts special emphasis on the observation, that in the course of psychodynamic treatment during the process of working through an oscillation between different structural levels is possible.