noun
- plural of psychoneurotic; people who suffer from psychoneurosis, a mental disorder characterized by anxiety, depression, or other emotional symptoms without loss of contact with reality
Usage: medical/psychological term; somewhat dated; modern usage prefers 'people with neurotic disorders' or specific diagnoses
Examples
- Early 20th-century psychiatrists studied psychoneurotics to better understand anxiety-related conditions.
- The clinic treated psychoneurotics with talk therapy and, in some cases, medication.
- Freud's work focused heavily on psychoneurotics and the unconscious roots of their symptoms.
- Modern diagnostic manuals have largely replaced the term 'psychoneurotics' with more specific disorder classifications.