Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder

Running Head: OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE PERSONALITY DISORDER
Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder
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Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder
The author of this essay watched a movie titled ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ 1991, 20th
Century fox production featuring Joseph Reuben as Martin Burney. The author observed Martin
Burney, a working-class married white male estimated to be in his late twenties or early thirties.
After carefully observing the identified character through the 57-minute clip, the author
concludes that Mr. Burney suffered from an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD).
On several instances, Mr. Burney exhibited the typical characteristics of the OCPD.
According to American Psychiatric Association (APA, 2013) individual suffering from this
condition shows an obsession with schedules, insignificant details, order, lists, or organization to
the extent that he loses focus of the key activity he is engaging in. This behavior is seen when
Burney suggestively hugs Laura who thinks that Burney wanted more sex. Instead, Martin orders
her to follow him to the bathroom while holding her by the hand while she trailed behind him.
Martin then compels his wife to figure out what could be a mess in the bathroom. Laura takes a
few quick glances around the room and notices that the bathroom linen was not perfectly aligned
and quickly fixes them. A patient suffering from OCPD exhibits characteristics of
disproportionate commitment to work at the expense of relaxation and family time (APA, 2013).
This is seen when Martin admits to Laura that despite being on holidays, he was engaged in
office work.
The APA (2013) further maintains that an individual may be said to be suffering from
OCPD if he is extremely conscientious, inflexible and, and scrupulous about issues to do with
ethics, standards, and morals. Confronted with the guilt of working while on vacation, Martin
goes overboard in his attempt to recompense for the mistake and tries to appear as if he is
concerned about his wife’s opinion when he asked her if she had forgiven him. According to
APA (2013), persons suffering from OCPD exhibit rigidity and are stubborn. Laura chooses a

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Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder
white dress for the evening party, however, Burney passively suggests that his wife wears a
black dress despite seeing clearly that his wife was already dressed in white. All these incidences
point towards typical characteristics of persons with OCPD.
While speaking to the doctor near the sailboat, Martin recalls how his wife nearly
drowned some years back during her childhood and how she hated water and could not swim. It
is due to this past experience makes Martin occasionally take out Laura on a boat. This further
brings him out as rigid as he is unable to contend with his wife’s discomfort with mass waters.
While they were still talking with the doctor, Martin calls the doctor Laura’s friend despite Laura
saying that she did not know the doctor.
Being in a family setup, it is easy to single out the impact of family members specifically
Martin’s wife on the character of the former. At the party, Laura asks Martin, “Have I been
social long enough?” This shows that Laura has submitted herself to the arduous demands of her
husband. This situation only serves to add more demands to the patient making his condition to
worsen. As Liggett, Sellbom, and Carmichael (2017) observe, OCPD individuals rarely attain a
state of contentment from another person’s action even if all the evidence suggests otherwise.
OCPD is a long-lasting trend of preoccupation with control, perfectionism and minute
details that affects an individual’s ability to be efficient and flexible (APA, 2013). Its symptoms
include feelings of doubt, pedantry, excessive conscientiousness, checking, preoccupation with
particulars, stubbornness, extreme need to be punctual, being overwhelmingly parsimonious with
money, excessive devotion to work, caution, extreme adherence to morals, and hoarding of old
items (Dembo, 2014).
The most important feature in the diagnosis of OCPD is the manifestation of extreme
orderliness and accuracy at the expense of proficiency and suppleness. The APA developed a