ABSTRACT
Perhaps I had better first try to explain what the word psychosis means to me. Psychosis is an illness of a psychological nature, but it is not psychoneurosis. In some cases it has a physical basis (e.g. arterio-sclerosis). It is an illness of persons, and the persons concerned are not healthy enough to be psychoneurotic. It would simplify things if we could say that psychosis means ‘very ill’ and psychoneurosis ‘rather ill’; but the complication here is that healthy people can play about with psychosis, whereas this does not often happen with psychoneurosis. Psychosis is much more down to earth and concerned with the elements of human personality and existence than is psychoneurosis, and (to quote myself!) we are poor indeed if we are only sane.
