[The feeling of incompleteness. Rediscovery of an old psychopathological symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder].

Résumé

This paper describes clinically relevant aspects of incompleteness experiences in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) (feelings of incompleteness concerning the self, "not just right" experiences and inability to achieve "closure" concerning actions/perceptions, compensatory urge to achieve "just right" feelings) and reviews empirical results and important research areas (frequency, association with symptom-based subtypes, motivational heterogeneity within subtypes, harm avoidance and incompleteness as basic OCD elements, sensation-based perfectionism, and relation to tic-related OCD and dissociative processes, especially depersonalisation/derealisation). Neurobiological explanations, biographical reconstruction, and treatment approaches are briefly summarised. It is emphasised that cognitive-behavioural methods tailored to OCD as an anxiety disorder must be modified considerably for the treatment of incompleteness-motivated OCD.