No longer used as a formal term in modern psychology, neurosis, also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, was a "catch all" term that referred to any mental imbalance that caused distress, but (unlike a psychosis or personality disorder) did not prevent rational thought or an individual's ability to function in daily life. As an illness, it represents a variety of psychiatric conditions in which emotional distress or unconscious conflict is expressed through various physical, physiological, and mental disturbances (as physical symptoms, anxieties, or phobias). These tendencies are usually very common among humans, such as depression, anxiety, obsessive/compulsive tendencies, and even personality disorders, such as borderline personality disorder, Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, et al. It has perhaps been most simply defined as a "poor ability to adapt to one's environment, an inability to change one's life patterns, and the inability to develop a richer, more complex, more satisfying personality." (Boeree 2002) Neurosis should not be mistaken for psychosis, which refers to more severe disorders.
The term connotes an actual disorder or disease, but under its general definition, neurosis is a normal human experience, part of the human condition. Most people are affected by neurosis in some form. Some neuroses, such as drive for success and power, are actually rewarded in western societies, but persons so possesed, when removed from the arena of competition, experience severe distress. A psychological problem develops when neuroses begin to interfere with, but not significantly impair, normal functioning, and thus cause the individual anxiety. Frequently, the coping mechanisms enlisted to help "ward off" the anxiety only exacerbate the situation, causing more distress. It has even been defined in terms of this coping strategy, as a "symbolic behavior in defense against excessive psychobiologic pain...," which, "...is self-perpetuating because symbolic satisfactions cannot fulfill real needs." (Janov 1998)
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