In surveying the psychoanalytic literature on the obsessive-compulsive disorders one cannot fail to be impressed by the fact that there appears to be a continuing need to re-examine this topic. Yet, in spite of this, over the years little essential change has occurred in our views on obsessional phenomena. There is no doubt that Freud's ideas on the subject have stood the test of time and of clinical experience, and the fact that so many authors have arrived at formulations which are fundamentally identical with Freud's testifies to this; at the same time, their very need to explore and re-explore obsessional disturbances bears witness to a feeling that the subject is still far from being well understood; a feeling which has found its expression in the main topic of this Congress.

In the present paper we want to examine one or two facets of what is certainly a complicated subject, and we should like to begin by considering some of the manifestations of obsessive-compulsive