An examiner asks a catatonic patient to stand on one foot for as long as possible; the patient does so despite it becoming visibly painful, and continues to comply fully each time the same uncomfortable instruction is repeated, without ever refusing or adjusting. Before revealing the answer: is this forced grasping?
No, this is more consistent with automatic obedience than with forced grasping. Forced grasping involves persistence of an action against an explicit instruction not to perform it; here, the patient is complying fully with an instruction regardless of its uncomfortable consequences, which is the defining pattern of automatic obedience rather than opposing a given instruction.
References
- Casey, P. & Kelly, B. (2019). Fish's Clinical Psychopathology, 4th ed. Ch. 8, 'Motor Disorders'.