Changes

"[[Neurosis]]" is originally a [[psychiatric]] term which came to denote, in the eighteenth-century, a [[whole ]] range of [[treatment|nervous disorders]] defined by a wide variety of [[symptom]]s. [[Freud]] uses the term in a [[number ]] of ways, sometimes as a general term for all [[treatment|mental disorders]] in [[Works of Sigmund Freud|his early work]], and sometimes to denote a specific [[class ]] of [[treatment|mental disorders]] (i.e. in opposiiton to [[psychosis]]).

It is a pathological [[mental ]] condition in which there are no observable lesions in the neuropsychological [[system]]. The [[patient ]] is normally aware of the morbidity of his or her condition and a neurosis can, unlike a psychosis, be treated with the patient's consent. Neurosis is normally [[understood ]] as a condition such as hysteria in which somatic [[symptoms ]] are an expression of a [[psychical ]] [[conflict ]] originating in [[childhood]]. Modern [[psychoanalysis ]] describes [[patients ]] presenting obsessional, [[phobic ]] or [[hysterical ]] symptoms as neurotic.

In [[Lacan]]'s [[work]], the term [[neurosis]] always [[figures ]] in opposition to [[psychosis]] and [[perversion]], and refers not to a set of [[symptom]]s but to a [[particular ]] [[clinical structure]]. This use of the term to designate a [[structure]] problematizes [[Freud]]'s [[distinction ]] between [[neurosis]] and normality.

[[Freud]] bases this distinction purely on a quantitative factors ("[[psychoanalytic ]] research finds no fundamental but only quantitative distinction between normal and neurotic [[life]]"<ref>{{F}} ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'', 1990a: [[SE]] V: 373</ref>) which is not a [[structural]] distinction. In [[structural]] [[terms]], therefore, there is no distinction between the "normal" [[subject]] and the [[neurotic]].

This [[Lacanian]] nosology [[identifies ]] [[three ]] [[clinical structures]]: [[neurosis]], [[psychosis]] and [[perversion]], in which there is no [[position ]] of "mental health" which could be called "normal"<ref>{{S8}} p. 374-5; {{E}} p. 163</ref>. The normal [[structure]], in the [[sense ]] of that which is found in the statistical majority of the population, is [[neurosis]], and "mental health" is an [[illusory ]] [[ideal ]] of [[split|wholeness]] which can never be attained because the [[subject]] is essentially [[split]]. Thus whereas [[Freud]] sees [[neurosis]] as an [[illness ]] that can be [[cure]]d, [[Lacan]] sees [[neurosis]] as a [[structure]] that cannot be altered. The aim of [[psychoanalytic treatment]] is therefore not the eradication of the [[neurosis]] but the modification of the [[subject]]'s position ''vis-à-vis'' the [[neurosis]].

<blockquote>"[[Neurosis]] is a question that [[being ]] poses for the subject."<ref>{{E}} p.168</ref></blockquote>

The two forms of [[neurosis]] -- [[hysteria]] and [[obsessional neurosis]] -- are distinguished by the [[content ]] of the question. The question of the [[hysteric]] ("[[hysteria|Am I a man or a woman?]]") relates to one's [[sex]], whereas the question of the [[obsessional neurosis]] ("[[obsessional neurosis|To be or not to be?]]") relates to the [[time|contingency]] of one's own [[existence]]. These two questions (the [[hysteria|hysterical]] question [[about ]] [[sexuality|sexual identity]], and the [[obsessional]] question about [[death]]/[[existence]]) "are as it happens the two ultimate questions that have precisely no solution in the [[signifier]]. This is what gives neurotics this existential [[value]]."<ref>{{S3}} p.190</ref>

At [[times ]] [[Lacan]] lists [[phobia]] as a [[neurosis]] alongside [[hysteria]] and [[obsessional neurosis]], thus raising the question of whether there are not two but three forms of [[neurosis]].<ref>{{E}} p.168</ref>