Resolving OCD: Understanding Your Obsessional Experience

by Frederick Aardema

Genres: Self Help, Psychology

350 pages, Paperback

Published December 12, 2024

About the author

Frederick Aardema, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, researcher, and professor at the University of Montreal. He is co-creator of Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (ICBT) and author of several books on OCD, including the acclaimed Resolving OCD series, which has given hope and clarity to readers worldwide.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Volume 1 of 2. Aimed at more than just the client, I think - some of the explanations and historical dives are technical enough to give the practitioner pause, so I cannot assume that the average client would be able to eat it up. Looking forward to volume 2 later.

[Emery Bosela · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great addition to the current OCD treatment option catalog.

[Eden P · Rating 1 out of 5]

First off: there’s no way I’m reading a book heavily written if not entirely written by AI (I ran several excerpts through AI checkers, trust me). That made it go in the garbage for me.

Aardema has spent decades researching OCD but doesn’t have OCD. One could argue someone doesn’t need to have OCD to make a self help book about it, but all I can say is it definitely shows. However the real issue is Aardema making dangerous sweeping claims about what we all supposedly haven’t been enlightened to (it’s pedantic and insulting). Aardema literally touts I-CBT as a better treatment than ERP, which 4 decades of research says otherwise. He also claims people with OCD can recover without ERP and just with I-CBT, which is dangerous and just false (again, decades of research on the effectiveness of ERP back this up). A few years of mostly self funded internal studies on your method don’t negate ERP and it’s honestly astoundingly egotistical to pretend they do.

You have to face your fears to recover from OCD, that’s just the uncomfortable truth that many of us have to face if we want recovery. No amount of pretentious analysis or reasoning will stop your compulsions.

Aside from these blatant flaws, the book is essentially a massive lecture that is unapproachable to the average person (I’m well read and can comprehend it, but I’m not everyone). I also agree with the other reviewer about how a lot of his wording can easily lead to mental compulsions that people would likely be unaware of since they’re reading an OCD self help book. If people were to realize they were engaging in mental compulsions because of the book, that might even turn them off from OCD recovery altogether, which I also find dangerous.

I’m not saying there are no ideas in this book that are helpful (a few I did find to be so), but that the amount to which he hypes up his method and reasons his way in this book as if it’s the best perspective on OCD recovery is dangerous and predatory. Regardless if his intentions are pure that’s the truth. People suffering from OCD are already vulnerable and don’t need this. If you want to help people with OCD, spend all that university and grant money on internal research and conferences on a therapy fund for people who need ERP.