Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A psychological state characterized by excessive anxiety or insecurity, compensated for by various defense mechanisms and lacking evidence of neurologic or other organic disease. No longer used in psychiatric diagnosis.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A nervous disease without recognizable anatomical lesion, as epilepsy, hysteria, neuralgia, etc.
  • noun In neurology, a process of nervous excitation: used thus generally only in opposition to psychosis, a mental process.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) A functional nervous affection or disease, that is, a disease of the nerves without any appreciable change of nerve structure.
  • noun (Psychiatry) a mental or emotional disorder that affects only part of the personality, and involves less distorted perceptions of reality than a psychosis. As used in medicine, anxiety is a prominent characteristic, and the condition may be accompanied by psychosomatic symptoms. Phobias and compulsive behavior are common varieties.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun pathology A mental disorder, less severe than psychosis, marked by anxiety or fear

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a mental or personality disturbance not attributable to any known neurological or organic dysfunction

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

neuro- + -osis

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word neurosis.

Examples

  • It's only another -- what you call neurosis, and what I call kink!

    Captivity M. Leonora Eyles 1924

  • I actually think it's a pretty good draft, though post-draft neurosis is starting to set in and within an hour I will be convinced that it's awful and broken and I hate it.

    rave on, it's a crazy feeling truepenny 2009

  • I would have guessed that high neurosis is meant to be correlated with low love in real life.

    Unless you’re Woody Allen. 2010

  • It could be a case study as his type of neurosis is always the same, from the Great Past to the Blood and the Soil, to toying with a Final Solution that relies on Death.

    A Promise 2006

  • The neurosis is setting in … the guilt, the guilt … think I need my meds … what IS the meaning of life, anyway????

    EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Can a dog suffer from multiple personality disorder? 2005

  • We have already explained the word neurosis, but we repeat here the definition given by Dr.J. R. Cocke.

    Complete Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Mind-Reading and Spiritualism How to Hypnotize: Being an Exhaustive and Practical System of Method, Application, and Use A. Alpheus

  • Petite, I’d rather say that your neurosis is wanting to keep him in spite of the fact that you don’t feel comfortable with him (as you so eloquently describe).

    snap 2007

  • Perhaps the love of, or the intense need for, reading is psychological, an eccentricity, even something like a neurosis, that is, a pattern of behavior that persists beyond its usefulness, which is controlled by inner forces and which in turn controls.

    Archive 2007-09-01 M-mv 2007

  • Perhaps the love of, or the intense need for, reading is psychological, an eccentricity, even something like a neurosis, that is, a pattern of behavior that persists beyond its usefulness, which is controlled by inner forces and which in turn controls.

    Content rules M-mv 2007

  • Well, they're stuck in cages, packed together, so, they get neurosis, which is being cage-crazy.

    CNN Transcript Feb 20, 2006 2006

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.