Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T08:27:30.321Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Phenomenology of Obsessions in Depressive Psychosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

N. L. Gittleson*
Affiliation:
Middlewood Hospital, Sheffield, 6

Extract

There is a general view that the content of obsessions occurring in the course of depressive psychosis is frequently aggressive, homicidal or suicidal. Prichard (1835), Esquirol (1838), Marc (1840), Maudsley (1895), Heilbronner (1912), Gordon (1925 and 1950), Muncie and White (1937), Henderson (1937), Bowlby (1940), Lion (1942), Oltman and Friedman (1943), Stengel (1945), and Skoog (1959) all express this view on the basis of single anecdotal case reports or series of fewer than ten cases. The largest reported series is that of Vurpas and Corman (1933) who described 27 cases (2 organically based) of homicidal obsessions in depression. Only 3 cases (Nos. 10, 24 and 27) exhibited obsessions before the depression and this is too small a number to serve as a control group.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1966 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bowlby, J. (1940). Personality and Mental Illness. London: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Esquirol, E. (1838). Des Maladies Mentales, Vol. 2, Ch. “Monomanie.” Paris: Baillière.Google Scholar
Gittleson, N. L. (1966). “The effect of obsessions on depressive psychosis.” Brit. J. Psychiat., 112, 253–59.Google Scholar
Gordon, A. (1925). “Obsessions in their relation to psychoses.” Amer. J. Psychiat., 5, 647–59.Google Scholar
Gordon, A. (1950). “Transition of obsessions into delusions: evaluation of obsessional phenomena from the prognostic standpoint.” Ibid., 107, 455–8.Google Scholar
Heilbronner, K. (1912). “Zwangsvorstellungen und Psychose.” Zeitschr. f.d. ges. Neur. und Psych., 9, 301, [quoted by Skoog (1959).]Google Scholar
Henderson, D. K. (1937). “The affective reaction types.” In: Psychiatry for Practitioners, ed. by Christian, H. R., New York.Google Scholar
Lion, E. G. (1942). “Anancastic depressions: obsessive-compulsive symptoms occurring during depressions.” J. nerv. ment. Dis., 95, 730–8.Google Scholar
Marc, C. C. H. (1840). De la Folie Considérée dans ses Rapports avec les Questions Médico-Judiciaires [quoted by Vurpas, C., and Corman, L. (1933).] Vol. 1, pp. 238.Google Scholar
Maudsley, H. (1895). Pathology of Mind, 2nd Ed. London.Google Scholar
Muncie, W., and White, P. (1937). “The mood-content problem and thymonoic reactions.” Arch. Neurol. and Psychiat., 38, 90102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oltman, J. E., and Friedman, S. (1943). “The role of hostility in affective psychoses.” J. nerv. ment. Dis., 97, 170–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prichard, J. C. (1835). A Treatise on Insanity, pp. 18, 22. London.Google Scholar
Skoog, G. (1959). “The anancastic syndrome and its relation to personality attitudes.” Acta. psychiat. scand. Supplement 134.Google Scholar
Stengel, E. (1945). “A study on some clinical aspects of the relationship between obsessional neurosis and psychotic reaction types.” J. ment. Sci., 91, 166–87.Google Scholar
Vurpas, C., and Corman, L. (1933). “Obsédés mélancoliques et obsédés constitutionnels.” Ann. méd.-psychol., 91, 409–54.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.