The neurosis-What a neurosis?

The neurosis

What a neurosis?

According to S. Freud, a neurosis is a disease of the personality which would be due to unconscious conflicts between three dimensions of the personality, namely:
- that which represents the instinctual forces
- super-ego for the interiorization of the interdicts
- ego which is the synthetic function of the personality

A neurosis differs from a psychosis because there is

- a contact preserved with reality
- a conscience of the pathological character of the disorder by the subject
- a big role of the psychological factors in occurred of the disorders

The neuroses present common symptoms

- a psychic and/or physical anguish
- a disproportionate tiredness (asthenia)
- sexual disorders
- problems of sleep: insomnia or hypersomnie
- hypochondriac symptoms
- an inhibition: motor coach or intellectual
- relational aggressiveness and difficulties
- the depression is a frequent complication of the neuroses

There exist four great types of neuroses

> The phobic neurosis or phobic disorder: the subject has crises of anguish only when he is confronted with an object or with a situation (ex specifies: in the subway, vis-a-vis a spider…)

> The obsessional neurosis or compulsif obsessional disorder: the subject has obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are ideas, affects or images which parasitize the thought and are essential in a repeated and involuntary way on the subject (ex: fear of the microbes). The compulsions are often secondary with obsessions. These are acts that the subject feels obliged to carry out even if he recognizes their absurd character (ex: washing of the hands).

> The anxiety neurosis or disorder panics: the crises of anguishes occur without factor starting as precise as in the phobic neurosis or obsessional. They are frequent and can be very invalidating on the level of social, emotional operation and professional of the subject.

> The hysterical neurosis: the subject expresses its anguishes through its body but in an unconscious way. There is no simulation in the hysterical neurosis even if the subject often draws from the benefit of its physical evils (example: faintness without physical cause).

Treatment of the neurosis

The assumption of responsibility is at the same time medicamentous and psychotherapeutic. Indeed, the origin of the neuroses seems at the same time psychological and biological.

Psychotherapies suggested can be of psychoanalytical type (for the hysterical neurosis) or behavioral (in the case of the phobic neurosis or obsessional for example).

At the medical level, treatments anxiolytic and/or antidepressants showed their effectiveness. It is advisable to take these treatments only after opinion of a psychiatrist who will be able as well as possible to advise you.

To retain

The neuroses are diseases of the personality whose origin is psychological but also biological. There are four different types: the phobic disorder, the compulsif obsessional disorder, the disorder panics, the hysterical neurosis. The treatment is at the same time psychotherapeutic and medicamentous.