ABSTRACT
Self-confidence in social situations may be based on an ability to cope with them, and part of the cure for social anxiety may be training in social skills. Studies of social interaction throw a new light on mental disorder. Sociological studies show a considerable decline in the prevalence of the illness in the USA, though in some countries such as New Zealand it is more common than schizophrenia. Depression, unlike schizophrenia, occurs almost equally in all social classes, and is if anything more common among middle-class people. Since manic states often occur in the same people who have depression, the same social and environmental conditions apply. The elements of interaction in anxiety neurosis reflect the state of anxiety. Hysteria is a form of neurosis which often involves bodily complaints such as paralyses and anaesthesias, or other psychosomatic troubles, as well as amnesias, and in extreme cases fugues and multiple personality.
