Introduction

Janet's classic contribution to the literature on OCD (1903) has still not been translated into English. Fortunately, Pitman has provided a highly readable synopsis of Janet's work (1984) as well as an interesting review/commentary (1987a), which will be used as the basis of the discussion here. In his review/commentary, Pitman presents a summary of Janet's ideas in three segments, each of which will be considered in turn here; the points Pitman himself offers will be considered in the course of commenting on Janet's work. Havens (1966) also provides an interesting account of Janet's contribution, some points from which will be briefly discussed in what follows, as will some of Reed's (1985) comments on Janet.

Janet on the clinical stages of psychasthenic illness

Janet includes OCD, among other conditions, in the category he terms psychasthenic illness. He divides this category into three stages, these being, from the least to the most severe, the psychasthenic state, forced agitations, and obsessions and compulsions. According to Janet, patients develop the less severe stages of the illness before the more severe and, similarly, lose the more severe stages of the illness before they lose the less severe.

The first stage of the illness – the psychasthenic state – involves the patient's feeling that actions have been unsatisfactorily or incompletely performed. Incompleteness in “perceptions” is also present, consisting of such experiences as derealisation and depersonalisation. Indecision, amnesia, poor control of thoughts, and “emotional insufficiencies” (that is, an inability to experience emotions fully) are reported by patients.