NEUROSIS IN YOUNG CHILDREN

Abstract

The purpose of this article was to examine what might constitute a clinically valid construct of “neurosis” among infants and toddlers, working on the assumption that such a state can exist, alongside demonstration of the difficulties of capturing psychopathology in early childhood. Starting with a short review of the concept of neurosis per se, and that in infants and toddlers, the concept of a “neurotic state” was proposed. The state would include both mental disorders and risk states during infancy as well as psychopathologies that could become manifest in later stages of development. Three inclusive conditions for subsistence of the state were defined as: 1) relatively low severity of pathology, 2) presence of psychogenic and/or extrinsic/environmental conditions as primary etiological factors, and 3) allowance for relationship specificities. Lastly, a number of candidates for this theoretical “neurotic state” were listed and discussed.