A patient reports a disturbance affecting the privacy or ownership of his own thoughts. Before revealing the answer, decide what distinguishes thought broadcasting from thought insertion.

Ask about the direction the disturbance runs: is something leaving the patient's mind and becoming accessible to others, or is something foreign coming into the patient's mind from outside? Thought broadcasting concerns other people gaining access to the patient's own thoughts — the thoughts remain his, but their privacy is lost. Thought insertion concerns thoughts that are not the patient's own being placed into his mind by an outside force — an addition, not an exposure. Both belong to the broader family of passivity phenomena and can coexist in the same patient, but the direction of the disturbance (outward exposure versus inward imposition) is the key distinguishing detail.