Description of Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

The essential feature of the obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is a preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and control at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency. Individuals with OCPD are conscientious, scrupulous, and inflexible about morality, ethics, or values. They may force both themselves and others to follow rigid moral principles and very high standards of performance. They are inclined to be severely self-critical. These individuals are deferential to authority and rules. They insist on literal compliance, regardless of circumstances (DSM-IV, 1994, pp. 669-670)

Frances, et.al (1995, p. 378) describe individuals with OCPD as:

• perfectionistic, constricted, and excessively disciplined;
• behaviorally rigid, formal, cool, distant, intellectualized, and detailed;
• aggressive, competitive, and impatient;
• driven with a chronic sense of time pressure and an inability to relax;
• controlling of themselves, others, and situations;
• indirect in their expression of anger although an apparent undercurrent of hostility is often present;
• often inclined to hoard money and other possessions;
• preoccupied with orderliness, neatness, and cleanliness; and
• inflexible and stubborn in relationships.

Benjamin (1993, p. 251) describes individuals with OCPD as being afraid of making a mistake or being accused of being imperfect. In response, they engage in a quest for perfection that results in inconsiderate domination of others and an inclination to blame and criticize people with whom they are connected. They engage in blind obedience to authority or principle. They are extremely self-disciplined, restrained, and self-critical.

According to Millon & Davis (1996, p. 505) OCPD is a conflicted personality style. Individuals with Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder possess traits that are in conflict with one another. Their interpersonal style and intrapsychic structures can never be fully focused nor coherent due to internal schisms that can neither be escaped nor resolved. The essential conflict is between obedience and defiance. Behaviorally they are compliant; inwardly, they posses a strong desire to assert themselves and defy the regulations imposed upon them. Basically, individuals with OCPD consciously behave like the dependent personality disorder; unconsciously they feel like the antisocial personality disorder (Millon, 1981, p. 218). As with the dependent personality disorder, people with OCPD incorporate the values of others and submerge their own individuality. However, inwardly, they are defiant, and the more they adapt the more they feel anger and resentment (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 505). Richards (1993, p. 255) also suggests that OCPD is comprised of qualities from the antisocial (aggressive) style and the dependent (submissive) style. In working with individuals with OCPD, the behavioral compliance is often accompanied by attitudinal resentment and anger.

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder has changed names many times over the years. The following are examples:

Pollak (Livesley, ed., 1995, p. 277) suggests that obsessive-compulsive personality traits are disseminated widely in the normal population. He believes that this personality is best understood as falling along a continuum of severity from an adaptive coping style to exaggerated and maladaptive expressions.

Most individuals with OCPD show traits of one or more of the other cluster C disorders. OCPD is also found in conjunction with passive-aggressive (negativistic) personality disorder or paranoid personality disorder. Individuals with OCPD may also develop various anxiety reactions, agoraphobia, depersonalization, somatization, and depressive disorders (Stone, 1993, pp. 349-350)(Richards, 1993, p. 256). According to the DSM-IV (1994, p. 671) systematic studies have resulted in OCPD being diagnosed about twice as often in males than females. Stone (1993, p. 346) suggests a ratio of 6:4 in men over women with OCPD.

Individuals with either OCPD (Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder) or narcissistic personality disorder are obsessed with perfection. However, people with NPD think they have achieved it; those with OCPD are quite self-critical and are struggling to reach perfection. Individuals with NPD, APD (antisocial personality disorder), or OCPD are often quite miserly with others. However, people with NPD and APD are highly self-indulgent. Those with OCPD are miserly with both themselves and others (DSM-IV, 1994, p. 672). Individuals with either NPD or OCPD are hostile and have an inordinate need for interpersonal control; they are both competitive and have a driven lifestyle. However, people with OCPD appear to have an intact capacity for dedication and loyalty -- those with NPD apparently do not (Pollak, Livesley, editor, 1995, p. 279).

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Reviewed: 04/2006