ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews all psychoanalytic models directly or indirectly implied in obsessive–compulsive functioning. The apparatus for linking is a metapsychological organisation that manages, transforms, and shapes the individual minds. Although maintaining a binocular view that takes the inter-subjective element into account, typical intra-psychic defence operations, as described in Freud's seminal writings, are commonly observed when treating obsessional patients. One may consider, taking into account the post-Jungian speculations on the emergent mind, how the process of emergence can be specifically affected when obsessional functioning is massively operating. In the Freudian speculation, obsessional neurosis has been traditionally linked to the anal phase of development and to sadism. Freud hypothesises that in individuals who are predisposed to obsessional neurosis, the development of the libido and the development of the ego can be out of phase, the former being retarded, with the consequence that hate prevails over love, hate pre-existing love.
