ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the typical traps of the assessment phase and consider those most common at the implementation phase, and at termination, of therapy. It demonstrates using brief clinical case descriptions, pointing out problematic beliefs and purposes, the negative effects that stem from them and, last, possible solutions. The chapter draws on clinical observation to describe the traps that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and therapists most frequently encounter during a cognitive-behavioural treatment. It argues that the beliefs and purposes tied to the fear of being morally unworthy do not only determine the obsessive-compulsive symptoms in the strict sense, but inevitably continue to operate when the patient reflects on his own therapeutic experience and on his relationship with the therapist. The chapter proposes an analysis of the most common traps and the psychological reasons that determine them in the hope of offering clinicians and patients a useful instrument with which to recognise them early and overcome them.
