Obsessive-compulsive disorder is currently the subject of considerable research, because recent epidemiological studies have suggested that the condition is more prevalent than was originally believed. This book offers a critical discussion of the most important theories that have been put forward to explain this disorder.

The book includes behavioral/learning accounts (and cognitive-behavioral supplements of these), accounts based on Pavlovian personality theories (such as those by Eysenck, Gray, and Claridge), Pierre Janet's account, cybernetic approaches, psychodynamic approaches, Reed's cognitive-structural account, and biological approaches. Therapeutic approaches to the disorder are also considered insofar as they are relevant to these theories.

An analysis of the concept of OCD is also presented, together with a critique of the existing definitions of the disorder. This book is unique in both the comprehensiveness and the depth of its coverage of theories of OCD. It also offers an entirely new approach to the definition of the disorder.