idée fixe

plural idées fixes · alternative idee fixe

1. human sciencesAn idea dominating the mind and maintained despite evidence to the contrary; (loosely), an obsession.

   The sage's solitary fantisizings about the heavens have turned monstrous, his yearnings for knowledge have swollen into idées fixes

   2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Penguin, published 2004, page 182

   3 more examples

   “There is the condition which the modern French psychologists have called the ‘idée fixe,’ which may be trifling in character, and accompanied by complete sanity in every other way. A man who had read deeply about Napoleon, or who had possibly received some hereditary family injury through the great war, might conceivably form such an ‘idée fixe’ and under its influence be capable of any fantastic outrage.”

   1904 April 30, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Six Napoleons”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC, page 212

   [“]A foreign policy of domination through spiritual means is [Jorane Sutt’s] idée fixe, but it’s my notion that his ultimate aims aren’t spiritual.[”]

   1951, Isaac Asimov, Foundation (1974 Panther Books Ltd publication), part V: “The Merchant Princes”, chapter 13, page 171, ¶ 13

   His conclusion though is illuminating, and established a theme that was to concern him for the next forty years of his life, becoming the idée fixe of works such as The Ghost in the Machine, The Act of Creation and the Roots of Coincidence.

   2009, Gary Clark, Quadrant, November 2009, No. 461 (Volume LIII, Number 11), Quadrant Magazine Limited, page 9

   Synonyms: fixed idea

2. A recurring musical theme; a leitmotif.

   a definite musical figure, called the 'idée fixe,' unifying the work throughout by its constant reappearance in various aspects and surroundings

   1922, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, volume 4, page 793