Neurosis and a Psychosis Essay

A major part of clinical psychology is the diagnoses and treatment of ami equal to(p) disorders. This bum practic all toldy be onerous and controversial due to the fact that mevery of the disorders shadower be confused with others there bent always clear guidelines in which to follow. An example of this confusion send away be seen in the disorders Neurosis and Psychosis. incomplete neurosis nor psychoses appear as major categories in the Diagnostic and statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III). The main reason for this is that both categories were fairly all-embracing and included a number of rational disorders with kind of dissimilar prognostics. Consequently, mental health professionals did non always agree on the diagnosis for a particular long-suffering. Neurosis is a usable (Psychogenic) disorder consisting of a symptom or symptoms caused, though usually unknown to the unhurried, by a mental disorder. The four commonest argon Anxiety State, Reactive Depression, Hysteria and Obsessive-Compulsive Neurosis. We all know what it is to feel anxious. Anxiety be fucks abnormal when it is reveal of all counterbalance to the cause, or when it continues long after the cause has been removed.Patients with other mental illnesses a good deal feel anxious from time to time, but the term anxiety neurosis is used to describe the illness in which anxiety is the main feature film and the patient feels anxious all the time. Reactive Depression is a induce of embossment where the cause is known i.e. marriage break-up or bereavement. Reactive depression trick be classed as a neurosis as it is an exaggeration of the normal expected response to such situations. In medical words the word Hysteria is used to mean that a symptom is beyond the patients control. If I deplete to withstand an examination tomorrow and to get out of it I ring up and say that I can non attend because I am going to the dentist, I am malingering. I am preferably delibe rately telling a lie to get out of taking the examination. But if, on the morning of the examination, I wakeup with a raging toothache although there is slide fastener wrong with my tooth, this is hysteria. There is no thing wrong, but the pain is genuine. I am quite truly incapable(p) of sitting the examination. The symptom is out of my conscious control and has become hysterical. neurotic symptoms always serve to get us out of almost unpalatable situation, to gain us some advantage, or to solve some mesh for us. People in whom hysterical symptoms are so pronounced that they can no longer pinch a normal intent are said to be suffering from hysteria. Some people will not walk under a ladder a few would be realisticly worried if you asked them to do so. They are obsessed by the purview that it is unlucky. Some people feel compelled to throw spilt salt over their shoulders. If a person is obsessed by a thought to such an extent, or compelled to perform certain actions so frequently that he/she is unable to lead a normal life he/she is suffering from obsessive-compulsive neurosis. The obsessions and compulsions take many different forms. The patient knows that they are unreasonable but are unable to control them. One of the most common compulsions is the need to rinse off time and time again another is extreme tidiness.The one thing all of the above disorders have in common is that all jump from external factors. So a neurosis occurs when the mind is affected by factors arising in the environment. A psychosis however, differs in that it is a mental illness arising in the mind itself. The psychosis can be divided into those in which physical disorder plays a major part and those in which it does not. These subdivisions are called organic psychosis and functional psychosis. Dementia and Infective-exhaustive psychosis are the main organic psychoses. The main functional psychoses are Schizophrenia and Manic-depressive psychosis. Dementia is the mental illness associated with decay or deterioration of the brain. It usually occurs in people over 60, but from time to time earlier. In old people it is called senile dementia. Most people bind their faculties quite well, but sometimes the brain ages and becomes diseased while the dead body remains comparatively healthy.The symptoms of dementia are those popularly known as second child-hood. The patient forgets the immediate past but remembers his early life clearly. He doesnt recognize people he knows well, frequently forgets where he has put things, doesnt know where he is or what day it is. diminished changes in his routine make him confused. He is unable to grasp any new ideas. Sometimes he is extremely obstinate and at others quitedocile. Physical illnesses, which are accompanied by infection or debilitation sometimes, give rise to mental symptoms. The most common is puerperal septicaemia or infection following childbirth. Others are pneumonia, influenza, tuberculosis, cance r and sometimes diseases of the restless system. The patient is restless, sleeps little and when he does he has vivid trances which he believes are real. He cannot think clearly and does not know what is going on. He sees and hears what is not there, may lose his memory and is often incoherent and noisy. He lives half in this world and half in a dream world. Schizophrenia is the most common of the psychosis and the most ticklish to understand.There are different types of schizophrenia and symptoms may vary from being moody and difficult to the most bizarre thoughts and actions. The patient may hear voices and see things that are not there. This is called being hallucinated. He thinks in a way that is cryptic to normal people. He may hold beliefs, which to ordinary people rough him are quite untenable, such as that his arms are stuffed with cotton plant wool. Such beliefs are called delusions. He often thinks that everything that happens refers to him and that other people are conspiring against him. He is sometimes apathetic or stuporose and is given to acting suddenly, without warning. The popular term rub mind, although not accurate, may have come from the way in which these patients will laugh as they describe some dreadful happening which they believe has just taken place, as if there emotions had been split off and no longer worked in harmony with their thoughts. insane psychosis, a type of mental disorder which alternates among phases of excitement and phases of depression. a great deal there are periods between these phases of complete normality. These are just a few of the disorders covered by neurosis and psychosis. One thing that can be noticed is the fact that all of the neurosis are caused by external environmental factors whilst all the psychosis are caused by. Another difference that has been storied is that many people suffering from a neurosis are able to accept that they have a mental illness whilst with a psychosis the patient belie ves that they are normal and cannot separate reality and fantasy.There are as well as differences in the symptoms of these disorders. Neurotic patients show exaggerated responses to events around them. These events are real and many people would react in a similar mould just not to such an extent as the neurotic patient when insuch a situation. The psychotic however, responds primarily to events that are not there, imaginary situations or hallucinations or voices. An example of this can be seen here, normalSo Roberts got the job? Oh well, I suppose my face just didnt fit.NeuroticIts always the same. Jealous Thats what they are. I should have been promoted long ago, but there just determined to see I dont get on. They gang up against me each time. psychoticThe government knows I have the secret formula, which will split the globe in two. Their agents are following me everywhere. Youre one of them you cant fool me. The neurotic believes something that is possible, but not probabl e. The psychotic believes something that is quite impossible. The differences between these two disorders, neurosis and psychosis, may appear small but they can help in the diagnoses and treatment of patients. It can be very difficult to treat a patient when the cause of their illness is unknown or when the illness itself is difficult to understand. It is for this reason that mental health professionals need to categorize mental disorders as clearly and concisely as possible.The DSM-III dropped the entries of neurosis and psychosis and split them down into subdivisions to try to enable better diagnosis but there is still confusion as to the differences between neurosis and psychosis. There is not only a difference between the two but similarly a difference in each individual vitrine. Different things mental picture people in different ways and many people although bundle the same illness have completely different symptoms. Every case should be looked at individually and treated as such. Instead of looking at for the best treatment for neurosis, it would be better to look for the best treatment for an individual.Dean Waring 28 / 02 / 2001Introduction to psychology Atkinson Hilgard 1983The science of mind and demeanour Gross 1999The oxford companion to the mind Gregory 1987