ABSTRACT
Neuroses are disabling and distressing human conditions that either have no organic origins, or, if they have, persist long after these origins disappear. The American Psychiatric Association's third Diagnostic and Statistical Manual replaced blanket diagnostic category of neurosis with anxiety reaction and number of separate syndromes, but different names and different classifications have been adopted from time to time. The two main groups of neurotic reactions have been called neurasthenia and hysteria, although neurasthenia is called anxiety neurosis, asthenic reaction or dysthymia. For a time, hysteria and neurasthenia were considered to physical disorders but they are known to be psychogenic and are often called psychoneuroses to emphasize their psychological rather than their neurological basis. Psychophysiological disorders, also called psychosomatic illnesses, are 'characterized by physical symptoms that are caused by emotional factors and involve a single organ system, usually under autonomic nervous system innervations'. The discovery of natural and experimental 'neuroses' in animals may be attributed to I. P. Pavlov.
