PSYCHONEUROSES. - Term first used by Dubois (1904) to designate, within the vast group of the neuroses, the forms in which mental representations play a preponderant part.
Most authors use the terms "neurosis" and "p." interchangeably, as synonyms; only psychoanalysts reserve the term p. for particular forms called "transference neuroses" (v. PSYCHOTHERAPY).
Leaving aside the many varieties encountered in the numerous modern classifications, it may be said that p., which appears without an anomalous personality and without a sufficient psychogenic cause, can be designated by the generic concept of "illness," in parallel with psychosis. There would thus be a hysterical p., an obsessional one, a neurasthenic one (with four varieties: simple, psychasthenic, phobic, hypochondriacal) and a dysphoric one (with two varieties: pseudoneurasthenic melancholia in depressive dysphorics, anxiety p. in anxious dysphorics). The pure pictures could be combined together into mixed p., e.g.: of anxiety and alarm, hystero-neurasthenic, obsessional-anxious, of alarm and compulsion, etc.
For the symptomatology and differential diagnosis of the various forms of p., see the respective entries.
A form that is very important from the medico-legal point of view must be mentioned, namely compensation p. (or sinistrosis, Rentenneurose), which is a mediated post-traumatic psychogenic syndrome whose clinical profile, with claim-oriented representations, may justify a distinct nosography. In it the importance of the psychic or somatic trauma is held by all to be entirely secondary with respect to the injured person's insurance situation; the great majority of injured persons would not present a post-traumatic syndrome if they were not insured. An important factor is the influence of the premorbid personality. Symptomatologically, one observes neurasthenic, hysterical (psychogenic pseudodementia), hypochondriacal (with a querulous attitude) and mixed pictures. At times the differential diagnosis from a pure psychoneurotic picture can be very difficult. The picture generally disappears rapidly as soon as the injured person has obtained the compensation.
As regards moral imputability, v. PSYCHOPATHIC PERSONALITIES.
Bibliography4 works
Bruno Callieri