Beyond Reasonable Doubt - Paperback

by Kieron O'Connor (Author), Frederick Aardema (Author), Marie-Claude Pélissier (Author)

Traditionally, obsessive-compulsive disorder has been classified as an anxiety disorder, but there is increasing evidence that it has schizotypal features ? in other words it is a belief disorder. This book describes the ways in which reasoning can be applied to OCD for effective treatment regimes. It moves comprehensively through theoretical, experimental, clinical and treatment aspects of reasoning research, and contains a detailed treatment manual of great value to practitioners, including assessment and treatment protocols and case studies

Back Jacket

Are all obsessive disorders best considered as anxiety disorders?

People with strong obsessional doubt and fixed, overvalued obsessional beliefs are often resistant to cognitive-behaviour therapy and difficult to help. In over ten years of clinical practice with people with obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD), it became clear to Kieron O'Connor, Frederick Aardema and Marie-Claude Pélissier that current cognitive explanations of such disorders are often incomplete.

Beyond Reasonable Doubt presents an innovative approach that brings together reasoning research, philosophy of mind and language, and cognitive therapy to understand OCD. It outlines the development and validation of an inference-based approach to treating OCD, which addresses the inductive and often imaginary narrative leading to obsessional inferences.

Clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health workers will find this book of great interest. Also included is a complete treatment manual of inferential based therapy (IBA), together with an appendix of supplementary treatment cards for the client that are available online at: www.wileyeurope.com/go/oconnor.

Author Biography

Kieron O'Connor completed his research and clinical training in psychology at the University of Sussex and the Institute of Psychiatry and Maudsley Hospital London (UK). In 1988 he was awarded the first of a series of fellowships by the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec, and established a clinical research program at the Fernand-Seguin Research Center, Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital, University of Montreal. The multidisciplinary research program, which focuses on obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette and tic disorder, and delusional disorder, is currently funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Kieron O'Connor is also Associate Research Professor at the Psychiatry Department of the University of Montreal and is scientific advisor to the Quebec OCD Foundation. He has over 100 scientific publications. Forthcoming publications include Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Tic Disorders (Wiley, in press).

Frederick Aardema studied clinical psychology at the University of Groningen and the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands under the supervision of Prof. P.M.G. Emmelkamp in affiliation with the Fernand-Seguin Research Center located in Montreal, Canada. He currently resides in Canada and has published in international journals in the field of obsessive-compulsive disorder. In particular, his research interests include psychometric and experimental methods in the measurement of reasoning processes in OCD, as well as the application of inference and narrative based models to obsessions without overt compulsions. He is a licensed psychologist and has a private practice in Montreal, Quebec.

Marie-Claude Pélissier studied psychology at the University of Quebec at Montreal in Canada and did most of her clinical training in London, England. She has been working for almost eight years in clinical research on obsessive-compulsive disorder and other OCD related disorders, which has resulted in publications in two international journals. As a licensed psychologist, she recently started her own private practice. She is also actively involved in local mental health community groups where she teaches and acts as scientific consultant on OCD.