Emotional and personality dysfunctions in early psychosis

Abstract

Emotion and psychosis During the 1800s, when the concept of psychosis was first introduced, it was used to refer to severe mental illness - illness of the mind - and was regarded as a subcategory of neuroses, which at that time were characterized by an organic aetiology. However, this soon changed, especially after the introduction of the term ‘psychoneurosis’ by Damerow, which signified the unity of psychosis and neurosis under the assumption that they both share an organic aetiology (Beer, 1996). The concept of psychoneurosis also underwent changes in meaning, especially after the influence of psychoanalytical theory. According to Freud, neuroses were characterized by an underlying, uncons..