[Rehabilitation of the concept of neurosis].
The use of the term "neurosis" has been gradually pushed out form the medical literature and from the everyday practice since the eighties of the last century. Instead, the categories of DSM-III, and its new versions, and those of the ICD-10 have become commonly used. The author analyses the advantages and drawbacks of this radical change. He points out that it is not merely the problem of the medical profession. Transformation of the way of diagnostic thinking has been put into a broader social and cultural context. The expression "deconstruction" describes appropriately the process when comprehensive, entire categories resign to small sliced parts of reality. The deconstruction recalls the "Universalia-dispute" of the Middle Ages, namely the question whether the general concepts have real existence, and to what extent. The term "neurosis" as a comprehensive category, which is characteristic of many patients, it has a heuristic value if it is filled up with new contents (anthropology, ontology).
Semmelweis Egyetem, Általános Orvostudományi Kar Pszichiátriai és Pszichoterápiás Klinika Budapest Balassa u. tringer.laszlo@med.semmelweis-univ.hu
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D015897:Comorbidity; D003210:Concept Formation; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000145:classification*; D009497:Neurotic Disorders; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends*; D009626:Terminology as Topic