‘Neurotic’ in psychological idiom is negative. The word connotes a pathology of lack. Neurotic is the only Big Five Personality Inventory dimension that is negative, and if a person fits the neurotic dimension he or she tends to not fit the other four; Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, and Agreeableness.
There is an inherent bias against the neurotic designation. It is something that you don’t want to be. If you are neurotic you are overly sensitive to some stimuli, maybe a little, or maybe a lot.
Your senses, one or more of them, are overwhelmed sometimes. You sometimes are intolerant of stress or of the perceived judgement of others. You are empathetic.
Empathetic means that you feel what other people feel. It does not always mean that you feel sorry for them, it just means that you feel it. That can be stressful. If you are neurotic, you lose sleep worrying about something. Going over a list of the things you might be worried about or feel guilty about might help you relax or send you into a tailspin from which you cannot recover sleep.
Being neurotic also means you probably do things to try and reduce your stress like plan ahead, lay out clothes, make lists, practice in your head, or otherwise reduce future stress by preemptive preparation. It also probably means that you have sought a spouse or partner(s) that know you are neurotic and learn to help you decompress when you get whipped up. If you don’t have this type of relationship, then your lack of supportive relationship contributes to your stress. If that last part is true about you, you probably stuff it. Stuffing it pisses you off sometimes.
Freud said that the neurotic was on the road to becoming psychotic.
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Some quotes that include the word ‘neurotic’:
If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I’m neurotic as hell. I’ll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.
-Sylvia Plath
The historical Woodrow Wilson suffered from numerous complaints which we might today label as psychosomatic. Yet, Wilson did have a stroke as a relatively young man of 39 and seemed always to be ill. He was ‘high-strung’ – intensely neurotic – yet a charismatic personality nonetheless.
-Joyce Carol Oates
The fundamental theme: Neurotics become hopeless because one thinks of them as hopeless. Neurotics should not be considered hopeless and one can help an individual become less neurotic by accepting him as neurotic. through an understanding of neurotics one in turn better understands himself. Ellis makes his point by discussing techniques for dealing with the neurotic behavior of others. He outlines some of the chief characteristics of a disturbed person and traces the origin of these disturbances. “Neurotics are neurotic; they are not to blame for being troubled.” – Albert Ellis (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Psychology Today published this article: The Neuroticism Paradox in 2010. The first line is “No one wants to be neurotic.” But read on, there is some argument for the strengths that might be found in being neurotic. I know there just has to be.
“Neuroticism is strongly associated with social anxiety… and a desire to avoid social disapproval and being perceived as incompetent in task settings … As a result, neurotics are motivated to prepare for, exert effort and attention towards, and contribute to tasks to avoid these kinds of social threats” (p. 389).
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Bendersky and Shah. (2013). The downfall of extraverts and rise of neurotics: The dynamic process of status allocation in task groups. Academy of Management Journal, (56-2) 387–406. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.0316
JLMiller'sNotes 