Treating Guilt-Inducing Self-Talk in Ocd with Dramatized Socratic Dialogue: A Step by Step Intervention

Objective

Fear of moral guilt and conseque:nt increased attention to personal actions and intentions are the main ingredients of the self-criticism in patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This pathogenic attitude takes shape in a typical guilt-inducing self-talk.The purpose of this work is to describe in detail a novel cognitive therapeutic procedure for OCD called "Dramatized Socratic Dialogue" (DSD).

Method

DSD is a theory-oriented intervention that combine elements of Socratic dialogue, chairwork, and cognitive acceptance strategies derived from Mancini's model, which posits that obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms stem from a fear of deontological guilt.

Results

DSD appears to have many strengths, being a theory-oriented treatment and focusing, as a therapeutic target, on the cognitive structures that determine pathogenic processes and OC symptoms. Furthermore, it is a short, flexible and tailor-made intervention.

Conclusions

Detailed description of the intervention could foster future research perspectives and thus be used in evidence-based effectiveness studies to establish whether DSD reduces OC symptoms and to investigate its mechanism of action.