Neurotic Personality: Is There Hope for Change?

You've probably heard it so many times that its true meaning is a bit obscured: 'don't be so neurotic!' From the portrayal of the neurotic New Yorker by Woody Allen to the more contemporary neuroses depicted in 'Desperate Housewives,' the neurotic personality is often misunderstood. Indeed, even as the neurotic personality as it was being conceived brought about warring disagreements between Drs. Freud and Jung. Both, however, recognized neurosis as an almost inevitable occurrence, at least in terms of degree.

According to Jung, though, neuroses were merely pathological exaggerations of what would otherwise be normal expressions of the self. Freud, on the other hand, believed that if an individual met particular frustrations during one of the psychosexual stages, he or she would suffer corresponding neuroses. Thus, neurosis was to be specifically of a sexual nature. These fundamental differences belie a belief system that shapes our view of pathology today: on the one hand, it is something that is with us forever, and on the other hand, it is an extension of our normal selves gone awry.

For example, Freud believed nerosis was rooted in childhood, and the answers to resolving those problems was to focus intently on one's past. Jung viewed this idea as problematic, as the neurotic individual enjoys fixating on teh wrongs of the past, which in turn get him nowhere. It's the proverbial 'brick wall.' Jung felt that this type of analysis would actually feed into the neurotic's self-pitying, narcissistic obsession of the self, and that the focus should rather be on one's present situation and his attitude towards that situation. If her or she is avoiding something today, then Jung believed that what the patient was evading could tell more about her personality disorder than fixating on her past.