Obsessions

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A strong and often uncontrollable fixation on specific ideas or routines that significantly influences one's thoughts and actions
2. A recurring and persistent preoccupation with certain themes or activities that may interfere with everyday life
3. A continual and powerful focus on certain thoughts or behaviors that dominates the mind

Etymology: "Obsessions" is simply the plural of "obsession," so its history is that of the singular noun. The root meaning is physical and military: Latin "obsessio" meant a siege, an action of surrounding and blockading a town until it gave in. The noun was built from "obsidere," "to besiege," which combined "ob-" (against, toward) with "sedere" (to sit), literally sitting down against a place. The leap from besieging a city to besieging a mind is the striking part. Latin writers used "obsessio" and its verb "obsidere" for an enemy hemming in a fortress, and the same image of a force that surrounds, occupies and refuses to leave carried over into the sense of a thought or feeling that fixes itself on a person and cannot be shaken off. The noun's modern psychological meaning grew out of that picture of persistent encirclement.

Synonyms: fixations, preoccupations, compulsions, infatuations, fascinations

Antonyms: indifference, disinterest, detachment, apathy, neglect