Emedinews:Insights on Medicolegal Issues:What is obsession?
Medicolegal Update
(Dr Sudhir Gupta, Additional Prof, Forensic Medicine
& Toxicology, AIIMS)
- 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.
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