Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) Behavior

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Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) is one of the passive personality disorders; individuals with OCPD fail to give direction to their own lives. They fear functioning independently and dread making mistakes or engaging in disapproved behavior. They become indecisive, restrained, and immobilized. These individuals are conflicted. They are socially compliant and interpersonally respectful. Underneath the conforming veneer are intense desires to rebel and assert themselves. They cannot because they remain trapped by their fear of intimidation and punishment. They experience severe physical tension and rigid psychological controls to inhibit their impulses and adhere to the expectations of others. Their prudent, controlled, and perfectionistic behavior derives from this conflict between hostility and fear of social disapproval. They can only partially resolve this ambivalence by suppressing resentment and engaging in overconforming behavior. Their disciplined self-restraint controls their intense, hidden oppositional and self-centered feelings. The powerful anger lurking behind their front of propriety and restraint occasionally breaks through into behavior (Millon & Davis, Clarkin & Lenzenweger, editors, 1996, pp. 290-309). Richards (1993, pp. 255-256) suggests that individuals with OCPD can and will behave in a passive-aggressive manner; they are just more successful than individuals with a passive-aggressive personality disorder at concealing their anger behind compliant behavior. Yet, for the most part, individuals with OCPD bind their rebellious and oppositional urges and defend against a behavioral breakthrough with excessive conformance and overt submissiveness. They manifest an extraordinary consistency; they show a rigid and unvarying uniformity in all significant settings. Not only do they follow the rules, they defend them. As a consequence, they can be seen by others as moralistic and self-righteous (Millon, 1981, pp. 217-225).

Individuals with OCPD (Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder) are excessively devoted to work and productivity. Oldham (1990, p. 73) notes that these individuals invest all of their energy in work -- then become tense, strained, anxious, and overwhelmed by the amount of work they have to do. People with OCPD maintain control of their occupational demands through attention to regulations, details, procedures, and schedules. Unfortunately, they can be so focused on trivial details that they lose the major point of an activity. They are extremely careful and prone to repetition. They remain unaware that others become annoyed at the delays and inconveniences that result from their behavior. They may allocate time poorly, with major tasks being left to the last moment. Their perfectionism causes them significant distress. They may become so involved in making everything perfect that they are unable to complete major projects. Yet they are reluctant to delegate tasks. They stubbornly insist that things be done their way. They give detailed instructions about how things should be done and are surprised and irritated when others suggest creative alternatives. They may reject help, even when needed, because they believe no one else can do it right. Others become frustrated at their rigidity. People with OCPD often refuse to compromise even when they recognize that it is in their own best interests -- because of the principle of the thing (DSM-IV, 1994. pp. 669-670).

People with OCPD can be mediocre performers in situations that demand more than careful planning or attention to detail. Such situations trigger fear that their efforts will not be acceptable to themselves or others. They are also intolerant of situations that seem so lacking in structure that their need for control and orderliness will make them quite uncomfortable. They can find secure niches in bureaucratic structures where lines of authority are clear. They are inclined to impose many restrictions on others; they are perfectionistic and disciplined; they are harsh toward themselves and others when idealized standards are not met. They are usually attentive to ceremony and correctness; their style is constricted and lacking in confidence and variety (Richards, 1993, p. 256).

For individuals with OCPD, even vacations or leisure activities, if they engage in them at all, are serious tasks requiring planning and organization. Often, if going on a vacation, these individuals take work with them so time will not be wasted (DSM-IV, 1994, p. 669).

Individuals with Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder are inclined to be pack rats. They hold tight to their possessions and regard discarding objects as wasteful. These individuals will hoard and protect their belongings against all intrusions even if significant others complain about the space taken up by what they have accumulated. Feeling deprived of so many wishes and desires in childhood, they protect what they have achieved as adults. This results in miserly, ungiving, and ungenerous behavior. They may live below their means so that spending can be controlled to provide for any mischance in the future (DSM-IV, 1994, p. 670) (Millon, 1981, p. 229).

continue: OCPD Affective Issues

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Reviewed: 04/2006