Obsessive Symptoms and Their Treatment*

If any one among a number of people happens to mention the subject of obsessions it will soon be found that practically every one present has had some personal experience of this kind. One, e.g., has had a tendency to count window-panes, another has caught himself trying to avoid each crack in the pavement, a third has found it difficult to walk down a certain street or to frequent a certain restaurant, a fourth has at times been haunted by a word or a melody, a fifth, while standing on a balcony, has been obsessed by an irresistible desire to hurl himself to the ground, a sixth has found it impossible to live on an island for fear of snakes, a seventh can not shake hands with some people, and so forth. This means that the relative freedom of which we are conscious in general has been restricted at one point or another; and that we have become subject to a special compulsion. Only in a few instances does it occur to those affected in this manner to consult a physician; and usually not until they have felt the symptom to be a barrier to the free exercise of their powers. Yet physicians constantly meet with obsessive symptoms in their practice; such phenomena are common, even in their most serious forms.

I want to use the indefinite term obsessive symptoms rather than the more common term obsessive ideas, since the obsession is not necessarily limited to a definite fixed idea; on the contrary, it may