Reality is not the boss of Calvin.
Despite some snide remarks that people might make about others they dislike, people are always thinking. Sometimes they aren't necessarily conscious of the entire stream of thought that runs through their head, but regardless, that stream is omnipresent. And often, much of the stream of thought is about the person to whom those thoughts belong. In most everyday situations, this is entirely in the background and unnoticed. However, for even the most average person, awareness of self must come to the forefront from time to time; e.g. "I'm hungry, when's dinner?" or "I'm going to feel that strain tomorrow." Such thinking is normal, if not always helpful.
Then, there are intrusive thoughts. These are unwanted thoughts that disrupt a person's daily life. They can cover almost any topic, but the defining characteristics are that they are persistent thoughts, and they distract from a person's daily life. In fiction, this often takes the form of an Inner Monologue, or, depending on the medium, can be a form of Thinking Out Loud. Situations such as a Heroic BSoD or a Panic Attack can be occasions for an audience to be privy to such thoughts.
While intrusive thoughts in real life can cover a wide variety of subjects, in fiction the most negative tend to be played up. Thoughts of violence (to others or self), thoughts of sex (which can include an Imagine Spot) that distract a person from a situation, even if that situation is "talk to this attractive person like a normal person and not a lustful idiot". Thoughts of self-recrimination are also common in fiction, e.g. "I'm scum. I'm no good. All I do is mess things up and get people hurt." Can overlap with My God, What Have I Done? or It's All My Fault if the intrusive thoughts are guilt-related.
Of course, just as in real life, intrusive thinking can overlap with Attention Deficit... Oh, Shiny! and or Chuunibyou tendencies, particularly if the situation is Played for Laughs instead. Intrusive thoughts may also be the cause behind a Cloudcuckoolander or Bunny-Ears Lawyer, and could be displayed by a series of Non Sequiturs. Such instances may also be referred to as maladaptive daydreaming.
Sometimes a person can learn to deal with these sorts of thoughts with a bit of therapy and some mental discipline techniques to redirect those unwanted thoughts. Other times, particularly in works that go more towards the idealistic side of the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism, another character can help break those thoughts by telling someone You Are Better Than You Think You Are.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You:
- In Chapter 153, Nano advises Momoha to clear her mind of distracting thoughts to focus on her idol training. This proves to be a challenge, as Momoha is unable to avoid thinking about booze.
- In Chapter 219, Naddy experiences nightmares about her mother shaming her for abandoning her upbringing and asks Nemu for help addressing it. It’s revealed that someone from the Yamato household was trying to invoke this trope to guilt trip Naddy into returning to her family.
- Wasteful Days of High School Girls:
- Nozumu "Baka" Tanaka will delightedly share her intrusive thoughts with everyone around her, particularly as a Running Gag at the start of each episode where she will tell the others she has something "amazing" to tell them, and then branch off into a Non Sequitur about lowland gorillas, the values of being The Determinator ("If you give up it's over"), and trying to rock the fashion world by inventing "Zero-Quarter length pants" (which Akane "Wota" Kikuchi points out would just be panties). She doesn't just reserve her intrusive thoughts for her friends though. During one particular study session with her teacher, she asked him about his fetish for college girls, and when he said it had nothing to do with her current problem, she says it does, because if she doesn't know the answer she won't be able to stop thinking about it. She also goes off on a tangent during that study session about how perhaps all of the guys in middle school secretly liked her and were just too shy to say so, racing off to her teacher's protests to start calling all of them up to find out.
- Kanade "Majime" Ninomae keeps finding her mind drifting off on thoughts about classmate Shiori "Robo" Saginomiya, a situation she claims is not romantic or sexual, but mere admiration, stating that Saginomiya's test scores in middle school made the rest of their class look like four year olds by comparison. She is frequently finding herself distracted in class by staring at and thinking about Saginomiya, and by studying "Baka", as she cannot understand the friendship that "Baka" and "Robo" have, and is hoping to learn from "Baka" how to get closer to Saginomiya. Unabashed lesbian Lily Somiya has noted this entire situation, and tries to use it to entice "Majime" to her, believing "Majime's" claims of a platonic admiration are Blatant Lies.
Comic Strips
- Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin is prone to random intrusive thoughts in class (and almost everywhere else), often manifesting as strange daydreams when he's in class. Sometimes, these are just harmless daydreams, such as him imagining that he's Spaceman Spiff or Stupendous Man. Other times, he's had daydreams where he's blown up the school with a jet fighter, or that he's a Tyrannosaurus Rex gobbling up all the people who've displeased him (and has at least once tried to bite his Mom when having such a daydream).
Fan Works
- Anything for Family: Exploited by the Masked Shadow, who uses his dark powers to whisper doubts inside Cure Rhythm's head, which are then mistaken for her own intrusive thoughts.
- Time to Disinfect: One of Mari's major mental issues is her frequent intrusive thoughts, with a voice in the back of her head chiming in to criticize and insult her for every mistake or flaw, no matter how minor. This is a major part of her internalized ableism, as it preys on her insecurities about being autistic and constantly reminds her that she isn't "normal".
Films — Live-Action
- What About Bob?: Bob Wiley is "human crazy glue". He is, by his own admission, a germophobe, has a constant fear of dying despite being in reasonably health for a man his age, and is a bundle of neuroses. He does such things as fake Tourette's Syndrome just in case he ever actually develops it for real, and ends up driving Dr. Leo Marvin utterly insane (though to be fair, Bob is genuinely good-natured and never intended that result).
Literature
- My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected: Hachiman Hikigaya doesn't just have intrusive thoughts. He writes them down as essays for his teacher, Hiratsuka-sensei. Such topics as the virtues of misanthropic tendencies, and the values of bears as creatures that prefer solitude are just a couple of examples of what he's handed her. It is this sort of behavior that has her force him into the Service Club to get him to interact with others more properly. Over the course of the series he comes to admit that he wants "something genuine".
- In the Revenge of the Sith novelization, Anakin has a fleeting thought of Padmé being a bug that he could crush and walk away from. While it doesn't have any immediate effect, it's implied that this thought emerged as a result of the Dark Side's influence on him and foreshadows his Face–Heel Turn as these thoughts, in addition to Palpatine's manipulations and his already fraying mental state, eventually overwhelm him.
- Spaced Out: Jermaine constantly struggles with intrusive thoughts and unwanted memories, which are at their worst right before he goes to sleep at night and right after he wakes up in the morning.
- Warrior Cats: In the Power of Three book Long Shadows, Lionblaze has repeated dreams and intrusive thoughts of killing Heathertail, which terrifies him, especially when he nearly does it for real. It ends after he chooses to stop battle training with the spirit of the evil cat Tigerstar.
Live-Action TV
- Coupling: Jeff Myrtlebank could be a poster child for intrusive thoughts. By his own admission he has had numerous intrusive thoughts on a wide variety of subjects but primarily on sex.
- In "Sex, Death, and Nudity", Jeff is preparing for an interview for a promotion, and he is worried about the intrusive thoughts he might have, suggesting that he might have the word "vulva" come into his head and say it out loud. A remark by his friend Steve adds the word "thighs", and in rapid order Jeff has a ton of sexual thoughts multiplying in his head. Patrick, trying to be helpful, suggests Jeff use the technique of picturing the interviewers naked. Jeff says that as it is a known technique, the interviewers could retaliate by viewing him naked. As time goes on, Jeff is picturing everyone naked, and as he laments to his friends, "I can't turn off the naked people!"
- Also in "Sex, Death, and Nudity", Jeff explains to his friends about the "Giggle Loop". It's a feedback loop where you find yourself at a solemn occasion, such as a minute's silence at a funeral. All of a sudden, a funny thought pops into your head, and you almost laugh. But you fight it back. And you think of how bad it would have been if you'd laughed, which invariable almost causes, a second, bigger laugh. Again, you fight it back, but ad infinitem you repeat the process until you can no longer hold back the laugh. Steve, Jeff, and Patrick all find themselves, shortly after, at a funeral observing a moment's silence, and all of them choking back laughter, until Jane, whose Aunt is the deceased, starts laughing herself.
- The song "Thought Bubbles" from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is essentially a musical Imagine Spot about how apparent himbo Josh Chan actually comes across as a Brainless Beauty because he cannot be left alone with his thoughts, as they invariably lead towards a dark path so he tries to stay untroubled and not think about... well, pretty much anything, ideally.
- Scrubs: J.D. is always having Imagine Spots based on various random things people have said, e.g. picturing Dr. Cox as Alice Nelson when Cox addressed J.D. as "Alice", which Cox accurately guesses. Subsequent episodes reveal he actually pauses for these daydreams, which apparently take just as long for the characters as they do for the audience, and people have to wait for him to stop fantasizing and come back to the conversation.
Video Games
- Baldur's Gate III: The Dark Urge's titular Urges are essentially intrusive thoughts that pushes them to maim or otherwise kill anyone around them in gruesome ways, which players can choose to either resist or embrace; the former of which eventually requiring Wisdom Saving Throws to succeed. The Dark Urge's murderous compulsions are revealed by the Third Act to be due to being a Bhaalspawn, the child of the Bhaal, God of Murder, and the purest example of one.
Visual Novels
- Fate/stay night: One character, Sakura Matou, struggles with intrusive thoughts due to her traumatic upbringing, which causes her to believe that she hasn't earned the happiness she now possesses. That's how the corrupted Grail got its hooks into her.
Webcomics
- El Goonish Shive: When an Immortal makes a vow, they essentially give themselves a very targeted form of intrusive thoughts that will come into effect if they try to violate their vows. When the reincarnation of Jerry tries to shirk his vow to be Susan's ally, he is immediately bombarded with a reminder of his vow.
Web Videos
- Daniel Thrasher: In "When you let your intrusive thoughts win
", Daniel is experiencing intrusive thoughts related to Self-Harm and suicide, such as sticking his hand in a garbage disposal or jumping off the balcony.
- Sanders Sides: "Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts" shows Thomas has been kept up by disturbing intrusive thoughts which impact his ability to function, like "Have you ever imagined killing your brother?". These thoughts are revealed to be coming from Remus/The Duke, Roman's Evil Twin, representing the parts of Thomas's creativity seen as "bad" and repressed when Thomas was young. Virgil and Patton worry that these intrusive thoughts mean that Thomas is a bad person, but Logan explains that they are no indication of his true character because he has no intent to act on them, and it is Virgil and Patton's overreaction to the thoughts that is hurting Thomas. The only healthy way to deal with them is to accept that they happen. Essentially, they let Remus have a temper tantrum and refuse to indulge him, which makes him less threatening than he was earlier in the episode.
Logan: It's like if you had a child who, despite all of your best efforts, refuses to stop screaming on an airplane. [...] There's no out. Just accept it. They'll tire themself out in time, and you can better address the issue later. There's no rush for you.
Western Animation
- BoJack Horseman: As shown in the episode "Stupid Piece of Sh*t", Bojack experiences these on a constant basis. It's a voice that constantly berates every little action he takes, preying on his intense self-loathing and wears down his self-esteem and is implied to be a large part of the reason Bojack is so resigned to the fact that he can't improve as a person. At the end of the episode, Hollyhock also reveals that she has thoughts like this too.
Hollyhock: Like sometimes I have this voice in the back of my head that goes, "Hey, everyone hates you, and they're not wrong to feel that way!"
Bojack: I know what you mean.
Hollyhock: That voice, the one that tells you that tells you you're worthless and stupid and ugly, it goes away, right? It's just like a dumb teenage girl thing, but then it goes away?
Bojack: ...yeah. - Daria: Referenced as Black Comedy in one episode, when Principal Li comes over the intercom. Jane asks, "Is that the voice that tells me to kill and kill again?" Daria says it's not, adding, "Satan's voice is deeper and he has a British accent."
