Obsessionality and Schizophrenia^*

A review of the psychiatric literature suggests that obsessional thinking and obsessive-compulsive neurosis may well be antecedents of schizophrenia. This is in keeping with the observation that severe anxiety and phobias are occasionally seen in the prodromal stage of schizophrenia. In rare cases established schizophrenics may continue to have obsessions. Clinical examples are presented in vignette form. The emergence of obsessional thinking de novo in the established schizophrenic must be considered a rare phenomenon.