Fourteen-year-old Charles spends three hours a day showering and it takes him two more hours to get dressed. An obsessive-compulsive, he suffers from the “illness of doubt”. This strange illness is also a secret one: obsessive-compulsives complete their ceremonial rites in privacy, never talk about what they suffer and are always surprised to find out that hundreds of thousands of others suffer from similar disturbances. Obsessive-compulsives speak out for the first time, under the guidance of their doctor, Judith Rapoport. This book takes the reader on a disturbing journey into a world of uncertainties; it also provides an examination of the possible origins of a mysterious illness that we are only now finding ways of treating.

Judith Rapoport is a psychiatrist. She heads the department of child psychiatry of the National Institute of Mental Health, in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.A.