Is “plausibility” a core feature of obsessions?

Abstract

[Excerpt] Obsessions are unwanted, intrusive, recurrent, and persistent ideas, thoughts, images, or impulses that cause intense anxiety and are recognized as self-generated. The word obsession derives from the Latin word obsidere, which means being occupied, preoccupied, or taken into possession. In his General psychopathology, Karl Jaspers identified essential characteristics of obsessional symptoms, including a nonsensical and absurd quality, compelling force of thoughts, the belief that thoughts can influence events, need for order, and unacceptable impulses.1 Later, ego-dystonia and insight were identified as core features of obsessions, crucial for differential diagnosis between obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), obsessivecompulsive personality disorder (OCPD), and psychotic disorders.2 Ego-dystonia reflects the conflict (or disharmony) between an idea, a thought, an impulse, an image, or an act and the subject and/or the subject’s self-image. Insight is the extent of knowledge that one has about one’s own thoughts and acts. [...]