neurosis

Term: neurosis

Literally meaning: “process to nerve disorder”

Origin: Anc Greek

νεύρον/nevron(=neuron) > νευρά/nevra (=catgut)

> (νεαρόν/nearon (=young) because catgut were made from intestines of young animals.

+(-ωσις)/(-osis )(=suffix denoting “process” or “state”)

Coined/History

by the Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, William Culen (1710 – 1790) in 1769 to refer to "disorders of sense and motion" caused by a "general affection of the nervous system”. Cullen’s used this term in order to define nervous disorders that do not have an obvious organic cause. Sigmound Freud later used the term anxiety neurosis to describe mental illness characterised by extreme anxiety .

Definition

Neurosis, in contrast to psychosis which refers to loss of touch with reality, is a class of functional mental disorder involving  excessive anxiety, hysteria, or or obsessive behaviour such as hypochondria.