ABSTRACT
The emotional or neurotic disorders are those abnormalities of emotion which are not accompanied by loss of reality-sense, such as is seen in psychotic illnesses. Symptoms are similar to most people’s reaction to environmental stress, but they are greater in degree and may be more prolonged in duration. The patient and/or his family may experience discomfort on account of his symptoms, but the latter are understandable in the light of his basic personality and of the stress which may be causing them. This is in contrast to the psychoses, where the patient’s symptoms cannot be understood of themselves and where the underlying personality is eroded.
