NEUROSIS

neurosis |n(y)oŏˈrōsis| noun ( pl. -ses |-ˌsēz|) Medicine a relatively mild mental illness that is not caused by organic disease, involving symptoms of stress (depression, anxiety, obsessive behavior, hypochondria) but not a radical loss of touch with reality. Compare with psychosis . • (in nontechnical use) excessive and irrational anxiety or obsession : apprehension over mounting debt has created a collective neurosis in the business world. ORIGIN mid 18th cent.: modern Latin, from neuro- [of nerves] + -osis .