A HEURISTIC THEORY OF NEUROSIS

Abstract

Introduction IN a recent communication (Slater, 1943), based on a statistical survey of two thousand neurotic soldiers, a hypothesis was developed to the effect that there was a generalized predisposition towards neurosis, which was in large part responsible for the appearance of neurotic symptoms in the individual when placed under stress. Evidence was adduced that this constitutional tendency, though it might be affected by such environmental factors as early processes of conditioning, was, at least in part, dependent on hereditary factors. Evidence was also brought that it could usefully be considered in a quantitative manner, and that so considered the intensity of the constitutional predisposition varied inversely with the degree of stress under which the individual was placed before breakdown occurred, i.e. the greater the intensity of the constitutional predisposition, the less was the degree of stress required to produce breakdown, and vice versa.