neurotic
/njʊəˈrɒtɪk
/adjective Medicine
1Having, caused by, or relating to neurosis.Thus, by putting the patient in contact with his phantasy world, psychoanalysis offers a special setting for a patient who is oscillating between the psychotic and the neurotic aspects of himself....
- In most of these studies the subjects were being treated for endogenous depression, neurotic depressive reaction, or psychoneurotic reaction with depression.
- The first thesis is that much neurotic symptomatology and indeed much so-called normal behaviour has a psychotic core.
Synonyms
mentally ill, mentally disturbed, mentally deranged, unstable, unbalanced, maladjusted, psychoneurotic;
psychopathic, phobic
1.1(In non-technical use) abnormally sensitive, obsessive, or anxious: he seemed a neurotic, self-obsessed character...
- While he is a sensitive and intelligent character, he is also incredibly neurotic and obsessed with his sister, Caddy.
- The amusing thing here, of course, is that De Niro's character in the film is clearly an obsessive, neurotic control freak who also teaches his cat to use a flush toilet.
- Maybe it's because this material is Jarecki's treasure-trove, and if filming is a neurotic, obsessive-compulsive activity, Jarecki is effectively complicit in it.
Synonyms
overanxious, anxious, nervous, tense, highly strung, jumpy, oversensitive, paranoid;
obsessive, compulsive, phobic, fixated, hysterical, overwrought, manic, irrational;
British nervy
informal twitchy
British informal stressy
noun
A neurotic person: I wasn’t going to be labelled as a hypochondriac or neurotic...
- Writing about dreams - for Freud, prime evidence in the case of neurotics - the Brazilian-trained psychoanalyst Ignes Sodre posits a common source for different affects.
- This is the world of neurotics in which psychoanalysis is involved.
- Freud concluded that both neurotics who had been exposed to shock and children who had been exposed to distress were attempting to master their unpleasant experiences by repeating them in dream and play.
Derivatives
neurotically
/ adverb ...- He wasn't really psychotic, just neurotically worried that he was.
- This is an extraordinary piece of work that manages to merge legitimate concerns with some of the most neurotically paranoid reasoning I've ever seen.
- Have I mentioned before how neurotically fastidious I am?
neuroticism
/ noun ...- It is also apparent that levels of neuroticism directly influence psychological well-being.
- The ability of neuroticism and work-family conflict to predict work-related psychological well-being was tested with a hierarchical multiple regression analysis.
- Using self-report questionnaires, Brough examines work hassles, work-family conflict, neuroticism, job satisfaction and work-related psychological well-being.