- A mild case of obsessive compulsive disorder is an example of neurosis.
- When a group of people are needlessly paranoid about changes taking place in a town, this is an example of neurosis.
- Psychiatry any of various mental disorders in which there is a symptom or group of symptoms that causes psychological pain or discomfort and may be very disabling: common neuroses include anxiety, compulsions, phobias, and depression
- popularly any mental state characterized by obsession, chronic anxiety, hypochondria, etc.
Usage Note: The word neurosis has been used since the 1700s, when it referred broadly to a “nervous disease.” With the advent of Freud's theory of psychoanalysis in the late 1800s, neurosis evolved to refer to mental disorders resulting from internal psychological conflicts rather than from neurological diseases or conditions. Today, the words neurosis and neurotic are no longer used in formal psychiatric diagnosis. The conditions formerly referred to as neurotic are now described with many other terms, such as anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Neurosis and neurotic are still frequently used in informal conversation and writing to denote recurrent worry and anxiety.
According to Wikipedia the term is no longer part of mainstream psychiatric terminology in the United States, though it continues to be employed in psychoanalytic theory and practice, and in various other theoretical disciplines.