What are causes of neurosis?

Answer 1

Neurosis consists of irrational thoughts and acts that cause significant harm to one's self or others. But what causes neurosis?

The humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow gave a great answer. He argued that the standard for proper human behavior should not be some statistical average of how people actually behave, but rather how the best, happiest, most productive, most creative, and most fulfilled human beings act - people such as Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein. In other words, Maslow argues that the standard for mental health should be human beings at their best. Maslow called these exemplary people "self-actualizers" or "the growing tip" of the human race.

Comparing self-actualizers to less-fulfilled, less-creative, and less-happy people, Maslow found that most neurosis is caused by the frustration of basic human needs.

A basic, as opposed to a derived need, is an innate and fundamental biological or psychological requirement for human well-being. In "Toward a Psychology of Being" (1962), Maslow listed five basic criteria which established a hierarchy of needs:

Its absence breeds illness.

Its presence prevents illness.

Its restoration cures illness.

Under certain, free-choice situations, it is preferred by the deprived person over other satisfactions.

It is found to be inactive, at a low ebb, or functionally absent in the "healthy person" because it is a fulfilled need and thus no longer a strong motivating force.

Maslow held there were seven basic levels of human needs:

Physiological needs such as air, food, sleep, shelter, and sex;

Safety needs, including security, order and stability;

Belongingness and love;

Esteem needs, the need for a stable, firmly-based, high level of self-respect;

Self-actualization, the desire to become everything that one is capable of becoming;

The desire to know and understand;

Aesthetic needs, the need for beauty in one's life.

Aggression, Maslow maintained, is principally a result of the frustration of basic needs. In other words, aggression is not an essential part of human nature, but rather a reaction to circumstances in which essential requirements of our nature are unfulfilled.

Examples are legion. In Communist China - one of the most sexually-repressed and controlling societies on earth - depression and suicide are commonplace. In the Middle East, which has been at war for 5,000 years - there is little safety, and massive anger, fear, distrust and hostility. In countries like North Korea, where there is massive starvation and even the most basic physiological needs are not met for millions of people, depression and suicide are rampant.

What is the solution?

To create societies in which basic human needs are easily fulfilled. That means removing institutional barriers to productivity and wealth, so the necessities of life will be inexpensive and easily acquired. That means getting rid of taxes and regulations and letting a free market flourish.

It also means eliminating class systems which destroy opportunity and self-esteem by branding certain people "untouchables" (India); peasants (China and South America); or vermin (Nazi Germany). It means teaching that sex is natural and healthy, rather than sinful and evil.

Answer 2

depression,stress,and angriness