Scrupulosity: Religious attitudes and clinical presentations

The attitudes of Catholicism and Judaism to scrupulosity are presented and the similarity between their management programmes and present‐day behavioural psychotherapy is noted. Two famous cases are presented from 16th‐century Europe and a further four cases from our 20th‐century clinic in Jerusalem. Certain common features are noted, typical of obsessive‐compulsive disorders, while some features, typical of scrupulosity, are best understood by considering both their religious and psychological importance. 1987 The British Psychological Society