A category of mental disorders characterized by anxiety, depression, or other distressing emotions that impair functioning but do not involve loss of contact with reality. Unlike psychosis, people with neurosis maintain insight into their condition and can distinguish between their symptoms and reality.
From Greek 'neuron' (nerve) and 'osis' (condition), coined by Scottish physician William Cullen in 1769 to describe nervous system disorders. Freud later refined the concept to focus on psychological rather than purely neurological causes.
The term 'neurosis' has largely fallen out of official psychiatric classification systems like the DSM-5, replaced by more specific diagnoses like anxiety disorders and mood disorders. However, it remains useful for understanding the historical development of psychiatry and the distinction between conditions that preserve reality testing versus those that don't.
Neurosis was disproportionately diagnosed in women in 19th–20th century psychiatry, pathologizing female autonomy and sexuality as 'hysteria' under a different label. Male anxiety disorders received more neutral medical framings.
Use clinical terms ('anxiety disorder,' 'obsessive-compulsive pattern') to avoid gendered diagnostic history and stigma.
["anxiety disorder","obsessive-compulsive pattern","maladaptive coping"]
Feminist psychology (Phyllis Chesler, Jean Baker Miller) exposed how neurosis diagnosis reinforced women's marginalization; contemporary language should reflect corrected psychiatry.
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