neurosis
A relatively mild mental distress or disorder involving chronic anxiety, obsessive thoughts, or emotional instability, without loss of contact with reality.
Unlike psychosis, contact with reality remains intact; the individual experiences heightened distress, anxiety, or compulsive habits.
Word relationships
- anxiety disorder: Modern psychiatric terminology replacing classical neurosis classifications.
- emotional instability: Descriptive term focusing on emotional reactivity.
- emotional stability: The state of maintaining psychological balance under stress.
Commonly confused with
- psychosis: In neurosis, the patient retains reality contact; in psychosis, reality testing is impaired.
Word family
- neurotic (adjective): Suffering from or characteristic of neurosis; prone to anxiety.
- neurotically (adverb): In an excessively anxious or compulsive manner.
Collocations
- anxiety neurosis
- obsessional neurosis
- cardiac neurosis
- underlying neurosis
Example sentences
- "Freud postulated that repressed childhood memories were a primary driver of adult neurosis." Historical Psychoanalysis
- "Her obsessive need for order was seen as a mild neurosis that spiked during periods of intense work stress." Psychological Observation
Memory hook
NEURO (nerve) + OSIS (condition). Nervous emotional distress without losing contact with reality. Nervous anxiety with reality intact.
When not to use
Avoid assuming this is a formal main diagnostic category in modern DSM manuals, as it has been reclassified into specific anxiety and mood disorders.
Fun facts
- Although dropped as a formal clinical diagnostic category in DSM-III in 1980, 'neuroticism' remains one of the Big Five personality traits.
Explore more words
disquiet, compulsive, apprehensive, anguish, panicked, ataraxia
Also appears in
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