ABSTRACT
Since Bouvet’s seminal article, in 1953, and Pickford’s book in (1954), with the exception of Shengold’s relatively recent articles (1971, 1984, 1985) there was an apparent neglect or loss of interest in anal erotism and its role in the formation of obsessional neurosis and the related character disorders. Shengold alluded to that neglect in his 1985 article. From the outset, it should be stated that there was no convincing evidence that the problems of anal erotism and the obsessions have found their social solutions, thus they no longer constitute an issue of psychoanalytic relevance. Those issues have not disappeared from our practices, but because of the fundamental changes introduced to the psychoanalytic theory, the contemporary schools, with their receding interest in diagnosis, are not disposed to recognizing those cases.
