Emedinews:Insights on Medioclegal Issues:What is obsession?

• In obsession, the sufferer constantly entertains an idea, without cause, in spite of all his efforts to drive the idea out of his mind. Obsession is a type of compulsive phenomenon. The classical example of this condition is, a person while going to bed at night, bolts the door of the room from inside, but after going to the bed he feels the necessity to verify and does so to see if he has bolted the door or not. He repeats this act again and again, in spite of his consciousness and in spite of his desire and efforts to stop the act.
• Obsession is considered a borderline state between sanity and insanity. In the above case, a sane person will stop after repeating the act of verification for a few times. But an insane person may continue the act all throughout the night without sleeping.