Proposed Revisions
301.4 Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
The work group is recommending that this disorder be reforumulated as the Obsessive-Compulsive Type.
Individuals who match this personality disorder type are ruled by their need for order, precision, and perfection. Activities are conducted in super-methodical and overly detailed ways. They have intense concerns with time, punctuality, schedules, and rules. Affected individuals exhibit an overdeveloped sense of duty and obligation, and a need to try to complete all tasks thoroughly and meticulously. The need to try to do things perfectly may result in a paralysis of indecision, as the pros and cons of alternatives are weighed, such that important tasks may not ever be completed. Tasks, problems, and people are approached rigidly, and there is limited capacity to adapt to changing demands or circumstances. For the most part, strong emotions – both positive (e.g., love) and negative (e.g., anger) – are not consciously experienced or expressed. At times, however, the individual may show significant insecurity, lack of self confidence, and anxiety subsequent to guilt or shame over real or perceived deficiencies or failures.Additionally, individuals with this type are controlling of others, competitive with them, and critical of them. They are conflicted about authority (e.g., they may feel they must submit to it or rebel against it), prone to get into power struggles either overtly or covertly, and act self-righteous or moralistic. They are unable to appreciate or understand the ideas, emotions, and behaviors of other people.
Instructions
A. Type rating. Rate the patient’s personality using the 5-point rating scale shown below. Circle the number that best describes the patient’s personality.
5 = Very Good Match: patient exemplifies this type
4 = Good Match: patient significantly resembles this type
3 = Moderate Match: patient has prominent features of this type
2 = Slight Match: patient has minor features of this type
1 = No Match: description does not apply
B. Trait ratings. Rate extent to which the following traits associated with the Obsessive-Compulsive Type are descriptive of the patient using this four-point scale:
0 = Very little or not at all descriptive
1 = Mildly descriptive
2 = Moderately descriptive
3 = Extremely descriptive
1. Compulsivity: Perfectionism
Insistence on everything being flawless, without errors or faults, including own and others’ performance; conviction that reality should conform to one’s own ideal vision; holding oneself and others to unrealistically high standards; sacrificing of timeliness to ensure every detail is correct
2. Compulsivity: Rigidity
Being rule- and habit-governed; belief that there is only one right way to do things; insistence on an unchanging routine; difficulty adapting behaviors to changing circumstances; processing of information on the basis of fixed ideas and expectations; difficulty changing ideas and/or viewpoint, even with overwhelming contrary evidence
3. Compulsivity: Orderliness
Need for order and structure; insistence on everything having a correct place or order and on keeping them so; intolerance of things being “out of place”; concern with details, lists, arrangements, schedules
4. Compulsivity: Perseveration
Persistence at tasks long after behavior has ceased to be functional or effective; belief that lack of success is due solely to lack of effort or skill; continuance of the same behavior despite repeated failures.
5. Negative Emotionality: Anxiousness
Feelings of nervousness, tenseness, and/or being on edge; worry about past unpleasant experiences and future negative possibilities; feeling fearful and threatened by uncertainty
6. Negative Emotionality: Pessimism
Having a negative outlook on life; focusing on and accentuating the worst aspects of current circumstances; expecting the worst outcome
7. Negative Emotionality: Guilt/shame
Having frequent and persistent feelings of guilt/ shame/ blameworthiness, even over minor matters; believing one deserves punishment for wrongdoing
8. Introversion: Restricted Affectivity
Lack of emotional experience and display; emotional reactions, when evident, are shallow and transitory; unemotional, even in normally emotionally arousing situations
9. Antagonism: Oppositionality
Displaying defiance by refusing to cooperate with requests, meet obligations, or complete tasks; behavioral resistance to performance expectations; resentment and undermining of authority figures
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
A pervasive pattern of preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control, at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by four (or more) of the following:
(1) is preoccupied with details, rules, lists, order, organization, or schedules to the extent that the major point of the activity is lost
(2) shows perfectionism that interferes with task completion (e.g., is unable to complete a project because his or her own overly strict standards are not met)
(3) is excessively devoted to work and productivity to the exclusion of leisure activities and friendships (not accounted for by obvious economic necessity)
(4) is overconscientious, scrupulous, and inflexible about matters of morality, ethics, or values (not accounted for by cultural or religious identification)
(5) is unable to discard worn-out or worthless objects even when they have no sentimental value
(6) is reluctant to delegate tasks or to work with others unless they submit to exactly his or her way of doing things
(7) adopts a miserly spending style toward both self and others; money is viewed as something to be hoarded for future catastrophes
(8) shows rigidity and stubbornness
The process:
