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

Overview

Journal Clin Neuropsychiatry

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2024 Apr 1

PMID 38559430

Authors

Angelo Maria Saliani

Claudia Perdighe

Vittoria Zaccari

Olga Ines Luppino

Alessandra Mancini

Katia Tenore

Francesco Mancini

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

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.

Citing Articles

Understanding Self-Criticism: A Systematic Review of Qualitative Approaches.

Zaccari V, Fazi M, Scarci F, Correr V, Trani L, Filomena M Clin Neuropsychiatry. 2025; 21(6):455-476.

PMID: 39839596 PMC: 11745034. DOI: 10.36131/cnfioritieditore20240602.

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