3. Theory of Neurosis
Neurosis is described as a symptom suffered by a person in order to hide her feeling of anxiety. Neurosis is the manifestation of anxiety. In the book The
Abnormal Personality Through Literature, Alan A. Stone, M.D. and Sue Smart
Stone 1966:7 argues, “The neurotic classically suffers either from anxiety or
some symptoms which protects him from his feeling of anxiety.” Stone defines
that the concept of neurosis is synergized with the concept of anxiety. These two concepts are related since neurosis is one of the ways a person faces her anxiety.
Since anxiety is described as a painful feeling, a person should face those anxiety in certain way. Stone adds, “Furthermore, contemporary study of the neuroses has
produced a unifying point of view around the concept of anxiety. The neuroses can be viewed as either expressing anxiety, e.g., the acute anxiety attack;
compartmentalizing anxiety, e.g., phobia; transforming anxiety, e.g., the conversion hysteria.”
There are two major types of neurosis that are anxiety attack and hysterical conversion. More categories of neurosis are also developed as the study of
neurosis is produced. Other major neuroses are hysteria, the obsessive-compulsive neurosis, phobia, neurotic depression, and the traumatic neurosis.
a. Anxiety Attack
Anxiety attack is the direct manifestation of anxiety. Anxiety attack occurs when a person converts her anxiety into physical symptom such as trembling
hands, heart beating wildly, and body becoming colder Stone, 1966:8. Gerald C. Davison in Abnormal Psychology and Eperimental Clinical identifies anxiety
attack as well as a sudden attack that appears as symptoms such as sweating, trembling, and dizziness Davison,p. 128.
The attribute of anxiety attack is on the direct and fast reaction of the symptom when someone faces her feeling of anxiety. Furthermore, the anxiety
attack lasts approximately for few seconds to an hour. b.
Hysterical Conversion Hysterical conversion is the protection against anxiety. Hysterical conversion
has characteristic of paralysis to suffer. Stone 1966:8 describes this neurosis, “hysterical conversion, where the anxiety and conflict are converted into a
physical symptom without physical cause.” c.
Hysteria Hysteria is found in the person with weakness, lassitude, lack of energy, and
illness related to the feeling of anxiety in repressing sexual impulses. Stone defines the hysteria case through The Barretts Of Wimpole Street by Rudolf
Besier: Freud believed that such instances of neurasthenia were related to the
repression of libidinal sexual impulses. Perhaps the most famous example of this condition is Elizabeth Barrett. The brilliant invalid of
Wimpole Street was caught up in an intense relationship to her father. His love, frustrated in his wife, turned toward his attractive daughter. Caught
in the heat of this attachment, his daughter found safety in illness. Through her illness she avoided the feminine sexual aspects of her nature, attaining
closeness instead in an infantile sick manner Stone, 1966:162.
Furthermore, in his book Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life, James C. Coleman explains about the causal factor of hysteria that is an avoidance or
reduction of anxiety Coleman, p. 210.
d. Obsessive-Compulsive Neurosis
A person who suffers from obsessive-compulsive usually feels doubt toward the things she has done. The doubt that becomes a characteristic of this neurosis is
too much. She might do her action repeatedly to leave her doubt. The obsessive compulsive is usually a careful person preoccupied with
neatness and cleanliness. He plans everything on detail and every decision is a major crisis in which both sides must be weighed and reweighed in a cloud
of doubt and confusion Stone, 1966: 170.
e. Phobia
Phobia is suffered by a person who has an enormous fear on certain object or situation. Stone 1966: 174 thinks, “A phobia develops when a relatively
harmless situation is reacted to as tough it were dangerous or when the danger is grossly overestimated.”
f. Neurotic Depression
Neurotic depression is experienced by a person with life stress. Stone 1966: 182 explains, “The neurotic depression is often precipated by current
circumstance. The predominance of depressed mood, however, is maintained, and usually the person cannot mobilize himself to alter it.” According to Gerald C.
Davidson and John M. Neale 1978: 140 in Abnormal Psychology and Experimental Clinical Approach,
the usual clinical pictures of this neurosis are difficulty sleeping, restlessness, hostility, and sadness.
g. The Traumatic Neurosis
Traumatic neurosis involves harassing emotions in a person. The symptom of this neurosis is appeared very frequently. Stone 1966: 186 exposes, “With its
sudden onset and its direct relationship to external factors, the traumatic neurosis
is the most dramatic of neurotic disturbances. The overpowering emotions that surround the acute trauma are preserved in the symptoms and played out over and
over again .”
C. Theoretical Framework
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