Maladjustment and Social Neurosis

Bibliographic Data

ID4770207
AuthorsGeorge Devereux (corresponding author)
Year1939
Volume4
Issue6
Pages844
Publication date1939-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-1224 • E-ISSN: 1939-8271
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2083763
OpenAlexW2312509417
LanguageEN
Citations received12

I T IS AN interesting phenomenon that, concurrently with the increase of our insight into the somatic pathology of the so-called neuroses and psychoses, there has set in a reaction against the long neglect of socialcultural factors in the pathogenesis and symptomatology of these disorders. At the present time, this reaction has become overly conscious of socialcultural factors, and has possibly overstepped the limits of scientific discretion. This is perhaps well illustrated by the widespread confusion between neurosis and maladjustment. Psychiatrists as well as social scientists are both responsible for this confusion. Having realized that certain socalled neurotic, or even psychotic, phenomena are socially acceptable and sometimes even at a premium in various primitive societies, they have hastened to conclude at least implicitly that neurosis and maladjustment are interchangeable and coextensive terms. Once they abandoned the hope of ever formulating that elusive and perhaps nonexistent entity, Human Nature, and hence gave up hope of establishing any absolute norm for sanity, they began to substitute for it the concept of cultural normalcy on a nonstatistical, conceptual, cultural basis. Although I am not aware that the point has ever been made quite so strongly, it might be said that, implicitly, at least, present-day psychiatry postulates that society is always right and the deviant individual is always wrong. A few authors, such as Bain,' Burrow2 and Frank' have raised their voices against this misconception and stated that both social and individual neuroses exist and that society as well as the individual should on occasion be treated as a patient. This essay will present further proof of this thesis and will outline a constructive program for investigating psychopathic trends in culture and for a differential diagnosis of maladjustment and neurosis. The theory that maladjustment and neurosis are more or less interchangeable terms reminds me of a native superstition among the Hc(rhn)de:a(ng), a Moi jungle-tribe of French Indo-China. It is the law that no man may laugh at the sight of animals being abused or made fun of. If, in a group of serious spectators, one person should laugh, the spirits will punish him. If, however, a person complies with this law and remains seri

Neurosis · Psychoanalysis · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Psychology

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