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==Sigmund Freud==

[[Obsessional neurosis]] was first developed as a diagnostic category by [[Sigmund Freud]] in 1894.

In doing so, [[Freud]] grouped together as one condition a series of [[symptom]]s which had been described long before but which had been linked with a variety of different diagnostic categories.<ref>Laplanche and Pontalis. 1967. p.281-2</ref>

==Jacques Lacan==

Thus the [[subject]] may well exhibit none of the typical obsessional [[symptom]]s and yet still be diagnosed as an [[obsessional neurotic]] by a [[Lacan]]ian [[analyst]].

Following [[Freud]], [[Lacan]] classes [[obsessional neurosis]] as one of the main forms of [[neurosis]].

In 1956, [[Lacan]] develops the idea that, like [[hysteria]], [[obsessional neurosis]] is essentially a question which [[being]] poses for the [[subject]].<ref>{{S3}} p.179-80</ref>

The question which constitutes [[obsessional neurosis]] concerns the contingency of one's [[existence]] (which also testifies to the special burden of [[guilt]] felt by the [[obsessional]]); the [[obsessional]] performs some compulsive ritual because he thinks that this will enable him to escape the [[lack]] in the [[Other]], the [[castration]] of the [[Other]], which is often represented in [[fantasy]] as some terrible disaster.

For example, in the case of one of [[Freud]]'s [[obsessional neurotic]] [[patient]]s, whom [[Freud]] nicknamed the [[Rat Man]], the [[patient]] had developed elaborate rituals which he performed to war off the [[fear]] of a terrible punishment being inflicted on his [[father]] or on his beloved.<ref>[[Freud|Freud, Sigmund]]. 1909d.</ref>

These rituals, both in their form and content, led [[Freud]] to draw parallels between the [[structure]] of [[obsessional neurosis]] and the [[structure] of [[religion]], parallels which [[Lacan]] also notes.

Whereas the [[hysterical]] question concerns the [[subject]]'s [[sexual position]] ("Am I a [[man]] or a [[woman]]?"), the [[obsessional neurotic]] repudiates this question, refusing both sexes, calling himself neither [[male]] nor [[female]]:

<blockquote>"The obsessional is precisely neither one [sex] nor the other - one may also say that he is both at once."<ref>{{S3}} p.249</ref></blockquote>

[[Lacan]] also draws attention to the way that the [[obsessional neurotic]]'s question about [[existence]] and [[death]] has consequences for his attitude to [[time]].

This attitude can be one of perpetual hesitation and procrastination while waiting for [[death]],<ref>{{E}} p.99</ref> or of considering oneself immortal because one is already [[dead]].<ref>{{S3}} p.180</ref>

Other features of [[obsessional neurosis]] which [[Lacan]] comments on are the sense of [[guilt]], and the close connection with anal eroticism.

==See Also==

* [[Symptom]]

* [[Structure]]

[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]

[[Category:Sexuality]]