neurosis

n.; pl. neuroses

any long-term mental or behavioural disorder in which contact with reality is retained and the condition is recognized by the sufferer as abnormal: the term and concept were originated by Freud. A neurosis essentially features anxiety or behaviour exaggeratedly designed to avoid anxiety. Defence mechanisms against anxiety take various forms and may appear as phobias, obsessions, compulsions, or sexual dysfunctions. In recent attempts at classification, the disorders formerly included under the neuroses have been renamed. The general term is now anxiety disorder; hysteria has become conversion disorder; amnesia, fugue, and depersonalization are dissociative disorders; obsessional neurosis is now known as obsessive–compulsive disorder (see obsession); and depressive neurosis has become dysthymia. Psychoanalysis has proved of little value in curing these conditions and Freud's speculations as to their origins are not now widely accepted outside Freudian schools of thought. Neurotic disorders are probably best regarded as being the result of inappropriate early programming. Behaviour therapy and SSRIs are effective in some cases.

Derivatives:

neurotic adj.