The essential feature of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder is a preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control, at the expense of ﬂexibility, openness, and efficiency. This pattern begins by early adulthood and is present in a variety of contexts.
Individuals with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder attempt to maintain a sense of control through painstaking attention to rules, trivial details, procedures, lists, schedules, or form to the extent that the major point of the activity is lost (Criterion 1). They are excessively careful and prone to repetition, paying extraordinary attention to detail and repeatedly checking for possible mistakes. They are oblivious to the fact that other people tend to become very annoyed at the delays and inconveniences that result from this behavior. For example, when such individuals misplace a list of things to be done, they will spend an inordinate amount of time looking for the list rather than spending a few moments re-creating it from memory and proceeding to accomplish the tasks. Time is poorly allocated, and the most important tasks are left to the last moment. The perfection- ism and self—imposed high standards of performance cause significant dysfunction and distress in these individuals. They may become so involved in making every detail of a project absolutely perfect that the project is never finished (Criterion 2). For example, the completion of a written report is delayed by numerous time-consuming rewrites that all come up short of ”perfection." Deadlines are missed, and aspects of the individual’s life that are not the current focus of activity may fall into disarray.
Individuals with obsessive—compulsive personality disorder display excessive devotion to work and productivity to the exclusion of leisure activities and friendships (Criterion 3).
This behavior is not accounted for by economic necessity. They often feel that they do not have time to take an evening or a weekend day off to go on an outing or to just relax. They may keep postponing a pleasurable activity, such as a vacation, so that it may never occur.
When they do take time for leisure activities or vacations, they are very uncomfortable un- less they have taken along something to work on so they do not "waste time." There may be a great concentration on household chores (e.g., repeated excessive cleaning so that ”one could eat off the ﬂoor”). If they spend time with friends, it is likely to be in some kind of for- mally organized activity (e.g., sports). Hobbies or recreational activities are approached as serious tasks requiring careful organization and hard work to master. The emphasis is on perfect performance. These individuals turn play into a structured task (e.g., correcting an infant for not putting rings on the post in the right order; telling a toddler to ride his or her tri- cycle in a straight line; turning a baseball game into a harsh "lesson”).
Individuals with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder may be excessively con- scientious, scrupulous, and inﬂexible about matters of morality, ethics, or values (Crite- rion 4). They may force themselves and others to follow rigid moral principles and very strict standards of performance. They may also be mercilessly self-critical about their own mistakes. Individuals with this disorder are rigidly deferential to authority and rules and insist on quite literal compliance, with no rule bending for extenuating circumstances. For example, the individual will not lend a quarter to a friend who needs one to make a tele- phone call because ”neither a borrower nor a lender be” or because it would be ”bad” for the person’s character. These qualities should not be accounted for by the individual’s culv tural or religious identification.
Individuals with this disorder may be unable to discard worn-out or worthless objects, even when they have no sentimental value (Criterion 5). Often these individuals will ad- mit to being ”pack rats.” They regard discarding objects as wasteful because ”you never know when you might need something” and will become upset if someone tries to get rid of the things they have saved. Their spouses or roommates may complain about the amount of space taken up by old parts, magazines, broken appliances, and so on.