ABSTRACT
The original psycho-analytical traumatic theory of the neuroses has maintained itself till the present day. It was not set aside, but supplemented, by Freud’s theory of the sexual constitution and of its predisposing significance for the development of the neuroses. In his essay on narcissism, Freud mentions among others that the peculiar changes in the love-life of those physically sick support the view that, concealed behind the object-love of the normal adult, a great part of the earlier narcissism continues to exist, only waiting for the opportunity to make itself felt. This chapter discusses those neuroses that supervene upon organic illness or injury, called as disease- or patho-neuroses. A traumatic neurosis is the result of a powerful mental and physical shock without considerable bodily injury. Combined in the symptomatology of it are narcissistic regression with conversion- or anxiety-hysterical symptoms.
