| 释义 |
obsession|əbˈsɛʃən|
[ad. L. obsessiōn-em, n. of action f. obsidēre to obsess: cf. F. obsession (1690 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
†1. The action of besieging; investment, siege.
1513More Richard III in Hall Chron. (1809) 408 They which were in the castell..sent also to the Earle of Richemonde to advertise hym of their sodeine obsession. 1638Penkethman Artach. K iv b, Famine, occasioned through the Enemies obsession, or strict siege.
2. The hostile action of the devil or an evil spirit besetting any one; actuation by the devil or an evil spirit from without; the fact of being thus beset or actuated.
1605B. Jonson Volpone v. xii, Graue fathers, he is possest..nay if there be possession, And obsession, he has both. a1641Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 190 To give them up to the power of Satan..to possesse, and really inhabite them, or by obsession to move, actuate and enspire them. 1696Aubrey Misc. 156 Her fits and obsessions seem to be greater, for she Scrieches in a most Hellish tone. 1871Tylor Prim. Cult. II. 113 These cases belong rather to obsession than possession, the spirits not actually inhabiting the bodies, but hanging or hovering about them.
3. transf.
a. The action of any influence, notion, or ‘fixed idea’, which persistently assails or vexes, esp. so as to discompose the mind.
1680R. L'Estrange Mem. Lib. Press & Pulpit 27 Never was any Nation..under such an Obsession [printed Ab-] of Credulity and Blindness. 1852Fraser's Mag. XLV. 248 Beset..by foreign, by back-stairs, and domestic influences, by obsessions at home and abroad. 1893H. Crackanthorpe Wreckage 99 The thought of death began to haunt him till it became a constant obsession. 1901G. B. Shaw Three Plays for Puritans Pref. p. xvii, The English novelist, like the starving tramp who can think of nothing but his hunger, seems to be unable to escape from the obsession of sex. 1908Yeats & Gregory Unicorn from Stars ii. 56 There is another kind of inspiration, or rather an obsession or possession. 1916G. B. Shaw Androcles & Lion Pref. p. lxxviii, The mass of mankind..are concerned almost to obsession with sex. 1922Joyce Ulysses 130 The Roman, like the Englishman who follows in his footsteps, brought to every new shore on which he set his foot..only his cloacal obsession.
b. Psychol. An idea or image that repeatedly intrudes upon the mind of a person against his will and is usually distressing (in psycho-analytic theory attributed to the subconscious effect of a repressed emotion or experience).
1901C. A. Mercier Psychol. 368 Obsessions are extremely varied in character. 1913E. Jones Papers on Psycho-Anal. v. 126 Twenty years ago Janet separated obsessions and phobias under the title of ‘psychasthenia’. 1924J. Riviere et al. tr. Freud's Coll. Papers I. vii. 129 Two components are found in every obsession: (1) an idea that forces itself upon the patient: (2) an associated emotional state. 1958M. Argyle Relig. Behaviour xii. 165 The similarities and differences between rituals and obsessions. 1976Smythies & Corbett Psychiatry vi. 82 If we see some particularly horrible disaster, most people find it very hard to get it ‘out of their minds’. An image of horror keeps coming back unwanted and the person has to struggle to get it out of consciousness. More trivial examples are tunes that keep running through one's head or fears that one might forget one's lines in a play... These are examples of mild obsessions—unwanted thoughts and images that crowd into consciousness in spite of all attempts to keep them out. |