The Complexity of Obsessional Neurosis and Its Different Psychic Currents

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the complexity of psychisms dominated by obsessional neurosis, composed of heterogeneous psychic currents with symptoms arising from the return of the repressed, as well as the occurrence of signs of content marked by a radical failure in repression. Theoretical contributions by Jean Laplanche and Silvia Bleichmar concerning psychic structuring and the various possibilities of symptom formation are reviewed. Furthermore, key points from Sigmund Freud's work on obsessional neurosis as reworked by Laplanche are examined, such as obsessive rituals, the omnipotence of thoughts, and feelings of guilt. These theoretical aspects were interwoven with clinical vignettes of obsessive-compulsive symptomatic manifestations, seeking to establish a metapsychological tracing of neurotic psychic currents originating from the repressed unconscious as well as more archaic currents, which exhibit the active presence of autoerotic drive signs stemming from trauma, coexisting within the same psychic structure.