Neurosis
A diagnostic grouping used until the mid-twentieth century for states of anxiety, compulsion, hysteria and the like.
A study quoted by Hans Eysenck in 1952 counted neurasthenic, anxiety, compulsive, hysteric and other states together under this heading. Eysenck himself left schizophrenic and manic-depressive states out of his count[1].
In Eysenck's summary, roughly two thirds of neurotic patients recovered or improved within about two years even without specialist psychotherapy. What counted as recovery, however, depended on the physician making the judgment[1].
Many studies comparing treated and untreated people were carried out afterwards. Pooling them in 1977, Smith and Glass reported that the typical therapy client was better off than 75 percent of untreated individuals[2].
Related terms
- PsychoanalysisThe method of treatment created by Sigmund Freud, which looks for the causes of symptoms in what the patient says, together with the theory built on it.
- HysteriaIn nineteenth-century medicine, the name for an illness in which symptoms such as paralysis or fits appear although no injury or lesion can be found to explain them.