neurosis

n. any one of a variety of mental disorders characterized by significant anxiety or other distressing emotional symptoms, such as persistent and irrational fears, obsessive thoughts, compulsive acts, dissociative states, and somatic and depressive reactions. The symptoms do not involve gross personality disorganization, total lack of insight, or loss of contact with reality (compare psychosis). In psychoanalysis, neuroses are generally viewed as exaggerated, unconscious methods of coping with internal conflicts and the anxiety they produce. Most of the disorders that used to be called neuroses are now classified as anxiety disorders. Also called psychoneurosis. —neurotic adj., n.

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Psychology term of the day

April 30th 2024

working through

1. in psychotherapy, the process by which clients identify, explore, and deal with psychological issues, on both an intellectual and emotional level, through the presentation of such material to and in discussion with the therapist.

2. in psychoanalysis, the process by which patients gradually overcome their resistance to the disclosure of unconscious material; are brought face to face with the repressed feelings, threatening impulses, and internal conflicts at the root of their difficulties; and develop conscious ways to rebound from, resolve, or otherwise deal with these feelings, impulses, and conflicts.