You suspect a patient is describing a disturbance of the boundaries of the self. Before revealing the answer, decide how you would assess for this.

Ask the patient directly whether they ever feel that their own actions or thoughts are being controlled from outside themselves, since this would represent a passivity phenomenon, the clearest and most severe expression of this disturbance. Also ask, conversely, whether their own thoughts or actions seem to reach outward and have an exaggerated, magical-seeming effect on the world or other people. Assess for related, milder expressions of the same underlying boundary, such as disturbances of body image, and for thought broadcasting, in which the patient believes their thoughts are shared with everyone around them, since both can be understood as other expressions of this same breakdown. Distinguish this carefully from a diminished sense of ownership of one's own activity, which points instead toward disturbance of self-activity.