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.