The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing: The Experience and Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

One boy spends six hours a day washing himself-and still can't believe he will ever be cleanAnother sufferer must check her stove hundreds of times a day to make sure she has turned it offAnd on woman, in an effort to ensure that her eyebrows are symmetrical, finally plucks out every hairAll of these people are suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), an emotionally crippling sickness that afflicts up to six million Americans. Cleaning, counting, washing, avoiding, checking-these are some of the pointless rituals that sufferers are powerless to stop. Now a distinguished psychiatrist and expert on OCD reveals exciting breakthroughs in diagnosis, successful new behaviorists therapies and drug treatments, as well as lists of resources and references. Drawing on the extraordinary experiences of her patients, Dr. Judith Rapoport unravels the mysteries surrounding this irrational disorder

“"Deeply moving and impressive." ”

"Deeply moving and impressive." --Oliver Sacks, M.D., author of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat"Offers help to millions who suffer in silence." --Chicago Tribune

"First-rate meticulous clinical observation and state-of-the-art laboratory studies illuminate an important human problem." --Leon Eisenberg, M.D., Harvard Medical School

"This book, with its information and lively writing, and informed by the author's obvious compassion for her patients, makes an important contribution to understanding an intriguing and irrational illness." --The New York Times Book Review

Dr. Judith L. Rapoport is Chief of the child Psychiatry Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. A graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Mediacl School, she has been the recipient of the Outstanding Service Award from the U.S. Public Health Service and the Ittleson Prize in Child Psychiatry from the American Psychiatric Association. She lives with her family in Washington D.C.

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