Lesson 3: Neurosis

Lesson Objectives

            The student will learn about...

• Beginning with Normal Behaviour
• Mentally Challenged Versus Mentally Ill
• The Pain of Labels
• Neurosis: Excessive Anxiety
• Causes of Neurosis
• Amnesia and Dissociation
• Conversion Hysteria
• Psychosomatic Illness and Hypochondria
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Obsessive – Compulsive Behaviour
• Anorexia Nervosa
• Phobias
• Depression
• Brainwashing

Introduction

This lesson was created using some material from General Psychology 20, Alberta Distance Learning Centre.

Overview

The term neurosis sounds mysterious and even exciting, but for people who are affected by it, it is any thing but glamourous. Is there any justification for studying bizarre mental conditions besides the fact that they are fascinating to research? Statistics indicate that approximately 10% of the population suffer from some mental disorder requiring professional treatment. One in ten young people is troubled by serious emotional problems. Half of the routine medical cases treated by doctors are compounded by a mental illness factor. Those facts alone are good reasons to study neurosis.

1 - Beginning with Normal Behaviour

Which of these feelings have you experienced: unexplainable worry or anxiety about the future, suspicions that people do not like you or are laughing at you, mood swings from joy to depression? These reactions are common. Occasionally feeling worried, suspicious, or anxious about something is natural. But when these feelings are exaggerated or persist over long periods of time, they may become abnormal.

How is mental disturbance distinguished from normal behaviour? Normal people have accepted the challenges of everyday life, meet conflicts as they arise, attack problems realistically, and have a positive orientation to life. Normal people are able to adjust to the problems and disruptions that come their way.

Normal behaviour is typical of a group of people within the boundaries of a culture. Each society determines the range of behaviour it considers normal. All behaviour outside that range is labelled abnormal for that society. What is normal in one society may be abnormal in others. For example, some Native tribes celebrated the Potlatch when they got together for social occasions. A rich chief would either give away or destroy many of his possessions. This behaviour was considered normal for that Native society. If we suddenly started exhibiting that kind of behaviour (destroying possessions or giving them away), people might wonder if we were mentally stable. Thus, normal behaviour is linked to what is accepted as routine ways of acting for a certain society.

2 - Mentally Challenged Versus Mentally Ill

The mentally challenged (at one time called mentally retarded) and the mentally ill are not the same. Mentally challenged people have a physical impairment resulting from brain damage or lack of brain development. The result is that intellectual capacity is below average. Sometimes the damage occurs before birth due to chromosome deficiencies in the developing baby. Sometimes the damage occurs during the birth process if the baby is deprived of oxygen for too long at that time or if the baby receives an injury to the head during a difficult birth. A person with Down’s Syndrome (having an extra chromosome in the body) is considered mentally challenged. Excellent progress is now being made with mentally challenged people, but they cannot be cured in the sense that their intellectual ability cannot be restored to full potential.

Mental illness refers to having faulty reasoning about something. It means having unusual misconceptions about life, which are sometimes accompanied by strange behaviour. For example, people with schizophrenia are considered mentally ill because they experience hallucinations, delusions, and confused thinking patterns. Many people with mental illnesses find that therapy or drug treatment is helpful in controlling or reducing their mental problems. Some mentally ill people are able to return to a normal lifestyle as fully functioning members of society.

3 - The Pain of Labels

Throughout this lesson and the following one, you will be learning about a number of behavioural disorders. Some cautions must be kept in mind before you begin. The label of abnormal or sick can be very negative and should not be used in an irresponsible way. If a person has a mental illness, the public reacts with fear, suspicion, and even feelings of outright rejection.

The proper diagnosis of a mental condition requires a lengthy and precise assessment from an extensively trained psychologist or therapist. When people have physical illnesses, there is a great outpouring of sympathy and concern. But people are not charitable with those feelings for mental illness. Although mentally ill people are not held legally responsible for their actions, the public perceives that they are in some way to blame for becoming mentally ill.

In general, mental illness is perceived to be a handicapped condition that has no sympathy. Some people may reason that if there is no physical basis for mental illness, then people become abnormal of their own free will. The public may falsely assume that mentally ill people can snap out of their present condition with a little selfdiscipline.

With these public perceptions, labelling can be a dangerous practice. A carelessly labelled person, can have difficulty to prove that he or she is once again normal. Labelling is a value judgment that indicates the person’s behaviour is perceived to be inappropriate in some way and should be corrected.

Labels can represent serious handicaps. Use them cautiously.

4 - Neurosis: Excessive Anxiety

Neurosis

According to Medilexicon's medical dictionary, Neurosis is:

A psychological or behavioral disorder in which anxiety is the primary characteristic; defense mechanisms or any phobias are the adjustive techniques that a person learns to cope with this underlying anxiety. In contrast to the psychoses, people with a neurosis do not exhibit gross distortion of reality or gross disorganization of personality but in severe cases, those affected may be as disabled as those with a psychosis.

The most distinguishing characteristic of neurosis is excessive anxiety. The person is in a state of continual fear that something terrible is about to happen. For example, if someone in our home is sick or when we are uncertain of our financial security, we experience natural anxiety. However, anxiety neurosis appears without any real cause. It is often so intense that it can be described only as panic. People with anxiety neurosis may experience lingering feelings of uneasiness. Sometimes their feelings of dread become acute. Anxiety arising from a repression of hostility or sexual desires is common. The neurotic person has the tendency to overreact to many routine incidents that the average person takes in stride.

Bound anxiety is associated with a specific object, event, or situation. For example, you feel a great deal of fear whenever you are in a certain area of the neighbourhood, and you realize it is because a big dog is in one of the back yards. You have a great fear of dogs, and, therefore, you are experiencing bound anxiety. You realize the dog is the reason for your experience of fear. When a person has free-floating anxiety, the vague nature of the anxiety is responsible for much of the terror experienced by the patient. The person’s feelings are intense, but he or she has no rational explanation to account for them. One of the main functions of psychotherapy is to pinpoint the source of anxiety to make it a manageable fear. If you put a name on the problem, then you can do something about it because you understand the cause.

Because neurotic people believe there is so much anxiety in their lives, they tend to use the defense mechanism repression to hide ideas they find unpleasant. When people use repression too frequently, their contacts with the real world become limited. Neurotic people use so much energy keeping repressed anxiety under control that they have very little energy for pleasurable and productive activities.

5 - Causes of Neurosis

Neurotic behaviour is generally believed to be based on faulty emotional habits and attitudes. Neurotic disturbances usually stem from irrational thoughts rather than physical defects. However, physical factors may also contribute to the development of neurosis in a small number of cases. Neurotic patterns may develop if some of the glands do not function properly, especially the thyroid gland.

The following factors appear to form a common thread in the development of many neurotic conditions:

• Emotional disturbances were frequently recorded in members of the neurotic’s family.
• As a child, the neurotic may have experienced trauma, sexual repression, and ostracism (or rejection by others).
• During childhood, above average demands were made on the neurotic to “be good”.

Today greater emphasis is being placed on the early detection and prevention of behaviour disorders. People tend to seek treatment when their abnormal behaviour hinders their ability to function. A decision regarding active treatment is usually made with these factors in mind:

• persistence of the problem
• degree of interference the problem causes with one’s everyday life
• importance of the problem in the eyes of the individual and those close to the person

A common mechanism used by neurotics to control anxiety is to avoid any direct confrontation with the source of anxiety. Thus, one of the goals of therapy is for neurotic people to remodel their self-concept and to see themselves as someone who can meet anxiety-producing situations and retain control. Another rehabilitative technique for the neurotic is learning to express hostility in adequate ways, which builds a healthy, integrated personality.

6 - Amnesia and Dissociation

Certain actions, feelings, and thoughts usually occur as a group of related activities. Dissociation causes a disruption or split in a person’s integrated, consistent concept of themselves from day to day. Dissociation is a behaviour disorder in which the main part of the individual’s personality is in conflict with other activities the person may be tempted to do. For example, Sue perceives herself to be a loving, caring kind of person. Dissociation causes her to frequently become abrupt with her associates, and suddenly she decides to cheat on her steady boyfriend. Stress can cause dissociation. Amnesia or memory loss is a kind of dissociative reaction.

Amnesia means that all or major parts of the memory are “forgotten”. When amnesia occurs, personal memories and personal identity are repressed or forgotten by the individual. By contrast, the person still retains general knowledge, habits, special talents, and overall information about how to function in society. For example, an amnesia patient may not remember their own name, address, or information about their family and friends (personal knowledge). They will likely know how to operate a car, how to eat with a knife and fork, or how to sing or play the piano (general knowledge). Personal memories may be painful for the person so these memories are temporarily forgotten. Becaue general knowledge is emotionally nonthreatening, those memories are retained.

Fugue amnesia (from the Latin word “to flee”) is the most extreme type of amnesia. It describes a situation wherein the person loses his or her memory and runs away or escapes to a strange environment. A young woman in Alberta experienced fugue amnesia. She lost knowledge of her personal memories, hitchhiked to California, and was found wandering and disoriented. She was brought home by family members, but even in a familiar environment, she struggled to remember the details of her life prior to her attack of amnesia.

Memory may be restored after a bout of amnesia by using therapy to treat the repression. Sometimes memory returns after a highly emotional experience. Recovering memory is one of the primary goals when treating a person for amnesia. Another important objective is healing the conflicts that caused the amnesia attack in the first place.

CBS News - Mysterious Amnesia Case

Another interesting phenomenon related to dissociation is sleep disorders. Somnambulism is sleep-walking. Sleep problems are not related to mental illness. They occur due to neurological or physiological disruptions that upset the normal behaviour of the brain during sleep. You may recall from the section on sleep earlier in this course that mention was made of REM, the rapid eye movements present during the deeper stages of sleep. Usually sleep-walking occurs during the non-REM stages of sleep.

7 - Conversion Hysteria

Sometimes a repressed emotion becomes converted into a physical symptom to relieve the emotional strain. When conversion hysteria occurs, no actual biological or organic changes occur to the body, but the individual experiences problems with sensory or motor functioning. Freud’s theory on conversion hysteria was that the energy behind the repressed emotion becomes channelled into a physical reaction that eventually blocks and disturbs the smooth functioning of the organ it is affecting.

Psychological distress is converted to physical distress. For example, you have to sing in front of a large crowd of people. You are so afraid that you lose your voice completely. You do not have laryngitis; you lose your voice due to extreme fear. Distress is shown by adopting the role of a person with an actual pathologic illness. Getting sick or developing a physical symptom is the way a person chooses to escape from a dangerous psychological situation. Illness provides immunity and protection from threatening situations because heavy demands are not made on sick people. Extra attention and sympathy are extended to the sick. Therefore, the individual capitalizes on conversion hysteria for these benefits as well.

Conversion hysteria is of several types:

People with conversion hysteria are usually quite indifferent to their ailments. Their physical illnesses give them legitimate excuses to avoid fearful situations. Even when people attempt to treat their conversion hysteria, symptoms will reappear and persist until the underlying conflict is resolved. Dealing with the root cause or conflict is the key to curing conversion hysteria.

8 - Psychosomatic Illness and Hypochondria

Psychosomatic disorders were discussed earlier in the course. They have a relationship to the topic of neurosis as well. Because the mind and body interact, what is happening in the mind can also have an effect on the body. Physical illness may be caused by prolonged mental stress leading to psychosomatic illness. Psycho means mind and soma means body. Emotional factors produce the ailments that often include actual damage to body tissue. Treatment that helps relieve emotional tensions also helps to relieve organic damage. The reverse is also true. Approximately half of all patients under a physician’s care may have illnesses arising from emotional stress or psychosomatic illness.

A hypochondriac is a person who is preoccupied with bodily ailments and who exaggerates every minor symptom or mild discomfort. Hypochondria is different from psychosomatic illness. Psychosomatic illness is actual physical illness that is the outcome of prolonged periods of emotional stress. The person with hypochondria worries that something is wrong with his or her body when there is nothing wrong. For example, hypochondriacs often read about a new illness and decide they have that illness when actually they do not.

9 - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

In the last few years the number of reported cases of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has increased. It is a condition that is misunderstood by the medical community and the general public alike. Many sufferers are given little sympathy because many people perceive that it is an attention-seeking device and the lazy person’s way of avoiding a lot of responsibility. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) affects about 2% of the population, so it is not a rare illness. About 70% of the people afflicted are women. Symptoms associated with the illness include debilitating fatigue that lasts for six months or longer, immune defects, sleep disturbances, low-grade fever, painful lymph nodes, sore throat, chills, headaches, muscle pain and muscle weakness, depression, and inability to perform daily activities.

Doctors have only recently been able to diagnose Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. There are a variety of theories about the cause. Brain scans reveal differences between normal individuals and those with CFS. Patterns of decreased blood flow are shown in the limbic regions of the brain deep in the temporal lobes. Further evidence shows low levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, in the blood of CFS patients. Some viruses that have not yet been pinpointed could trigger the onset of the disease. Clear immune system differences are shown between CFS patients and healthy people.

At one time bed rest was the prescribed treatment for CFS. Nowadays, patients are urged to participate in light exercise, take some antidepressants, and follow a healthy diet with herbs and vitamins. Counselling is also available to CFS patients to overcome depression. There is no cure for CFS; it can last for years.

Although Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a physically-based illness, it is included in the lesson on neurosis because, like neurotic conditions, it affects the everyday behaviour of the people who have it.

10 - Obsessive – Compulsive Behaviour

The combination of obsessive-compulsive neurotic behaviours may involve obsessive thoughts, compulsive acts, or a combination of obsessive thoughts with compulsive acts.

Obsessions are simply persistent, irrational thoughts. Inappropriate thoughts occur and will not leave the mind voluntarily. For example, you may believe that if you do not attend every game your high school basketball team plays, they will lose. Then, you blame yourself for causing them to lose these games. That’s a strange idea, isn’t it? But that’s the kind of weird logic that surrounds obsessions. Obsessions are ideas heavily laden with strong emotions. A person may perceive obsessions to be dangerous because they violate the individual’s personal goals and values. The disruptions and annoyance that obsessions bring to the individual can cause a person to feel constrained and disorganized. 

A compulsion is an action that results from an irresistible inner force compelling the performance of an act without or even against the will of the individual. For example, handwashing is one of the most common of the compulsive acts. Most compulsions reveal a profound concern for cleanliness and order. It is as though the victim were trying in this way to wash out some guilty memory of past uncleanliness or misbehaviour. Compulsive behaviour is never altered in any detail; it is repetitive, ritualistic actions. Some compulsive behaviours might be an urge to count and then to recount something, persistent mannerisms (tics), and compulsive sexual behaviour.

Obsessions are persistent thoughts; compulsions are repetitive actions.

Obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) are caused by a chemical imbalance. OCD usually starts in adolescence. People affected realize something is wrong with them. These people are intelligent and perform their everyday tasks. At the same time, they carefully conceal their secret disturbance from others. OCD tends to show up in other family members. There is no cure for OCD but it can be effectively controlled with drugs or therapy, which helps the individual to get the upper hand on this behaviour. OCD may affect as many as 3% of the population.

An unusual compulsive behaviour is hair pulling know as trichotillomania. Hair pulling is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Medication can correct it although there is no known cure.

Related to compulsive disorders is the condition known as Tourette’s Syndrome. It is a condition that includes many different motor tics (related to body movement) and vocal tics. Motor tics include such things as eye blinking, mouth opening, grimacing, or shoulder shrugging. Vocal tics include such things as throat clearing, snorting, grunting, or barking. An individual may repeat sounds or words. In some cases, an individual may involuntarily use foul language (swearing) or may involuntarily make obscene gestures.

An individual experiencing Tourette’s Syndrome may have tics many times a day. The location of the tics on the body and their frequency can change over time. The disorder usually begins sometime during childhood and affects more males than females. Research is still not clear about causes but neurotransmitters in the brain are involved in some way. A variety of drugs may be used to keep the tics under control so they do not interfere with the individual’s daily life. Self-control is difficult for people with Tourette’s Syndrome because it is a complex neurochemical problem. The person with Tourette’s should not feel cornered either physically or emotionally. The goal of any treatment or therapy is not to eliminate the tics but to bring them under some measure of control.

11 - Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is an extreme loss of appetite over a long period of time for emotional reasons. The individual finds it impossible to consume food. In some cases even actual threat of death by starvation will not sway a person from refusal to eat. Anorexia nervosa occurs in women more often than in men in a ratio of nine to one. One usual reason behind the disorder is fear of sexual maturity; thus, the patient attempts to remain excessively thin and underdeveloped. Another reason for anorexia is that food may be associated with impregnation because the body expands with healthy eating habits as it does with pregnancy. Anorexia nervosa may by motivated by retaliation. Because parents often express worry over the child’s proper eating habits, rejection of food becomes an ideal method the child uses to exert control in their lives. The anorexic seeks precise control over his or her body and body functions, and she or he uses food as a means of reaching that goal. Some of the side effects of anorexia are hair loss, tooth and nail decay (from lack of nutrition), and a feeling of body coldness all the time.

Bulimia is an eating disorder related to anorexia, but quite different as well. The bulimic goes on an eating binge, consuming vast quantities of food and then attempts to get rid of the food by selfinduced vomiting, by excessive use of laxatives, by periods of fasting, or by excessive exercising. The procedures are different between bulimia and anorexia, but the underlying reasons are similar: an obsessive concern with body weight and body image, an abnormal fear of fatness, and an intense desire for control in one’s life. Often the person’s dentist can see the telltale signs of bulimia by the condition of the patient’s teeth from constant vomiting. Some of the medical effects of self starvation include dry skin, reduced energy, loss of menstruation, low body temperature, low heart rate, low blood pressure, and slow hair growth.

When either bulimia or anorexia continues for many years, serious damage is done to the body, which needs basic nutrition to grow and function normally. Persons afflicted with eating disorders has very distorted self-perception. They look into the mirror and see someone they consider fat and ugly although they may weigh less than forty kilograms. Bulimia and anorexia are extreme forms of dieting in which people risk their health and their lives to attain a thin body image.

12 - Phobias

Phobias are excessive, irrational fears that go far beyond natural fear; they occur in the absence of real danger. Phobias are often successfully hidden from the attention of medical personnel and casual acquaintances. Many individuals accept their phobias as inevitable parts of their lives. They quietly plan self-imposed limitations on their daily lives to control their phobias without bringing attention to their problems. Repression causes the victims to be unaware of the sources of underlying hostilities related to their particular phobias.

An entirely normal apprehension or fear could escalate until it becomes a phobia that controls one’s life. For example, a healthy respect for elevator safety keeps you alive; a phobic fear that prevents you from getting into an elevator can be a serious disadvantage if you live in or work in a high-rise building. No phobia should be taken lightly. In extreme cases, acute fear or panic can do severe damage. In many cases, extreme fear in the form of a phobia produces physical symptoms and feelings of uncontrollable terror.

The boundaries of a phobia vary. In some cases, a phobia is confined to a specific object or event. However, sometimes the phobic problem worsens as the number of phobias spread and grow to include other objects and situations. Some people are continually fear-prone, so if one phobia problem is removed, the victim may quickly acquire another. In theory, a person could go through life developing one phobia after another if proper treatment is not undertaken.

What are some of the reasons people develop such strong and such weird phobias? The conditioning theory explains it this way. First, an emotionally traumatic experience occurs and may trigger feelings of guilt that the person attempts to repress. Therefore, unusual fears are commonly traceable to early experiences in which these situations possessed a terrifying hold on the person.

A second theory known as the dynamic theory explains phobias in a slightly different way. Impulses that we are not aware of (unconscious) generate an emotional response. The person will not allow the impulse to be expressed, but the underlying emotion still remains. Emotional anxiety eventually builds up and the person uses a phobia as a defense mechanism for protection. The person unconsciously chooses an object and believes that object is the source of anxiety. The person has attached a definite (although not necessarily accurate) label to his or her fears and maintains control of anxiety by the avoiding the phobic object or situation. The object identified as the phobic one may be purely symbolic, or it may have a genuinely close connection to the underlying conflict or perceived danger experienced by the individual.

But perhaps more important than the theory behind the phobia is the concern about how the phobia can be effectively treated.

One of the most gentle ways of treating a phobia is through desensitization. First, the phobic patient is asked to relax. Then, the patient is led through a hierarchy of fear—he or she is asked to imagine a mild fear in relation to the phobia. The patient gradually imagines successive scenes that are more directly involved with the source of fear and, therefore, are more terrifying. For example, if you have a phobia about birds, the therapists using desensitization would ask you to look at pictures of birds, then be in a room with stuffed birds, then be a block away from a live bird, and eventually get very close to a real bird. Patients lose their fear in small steps.

Flooding means that the patient is confronted with the full phobic reaction right in the beginning by being exposed to the full emotional experience all in one step. The flooding method of phobia therapy exposes a patient to the exact object of fear at the start of the treatment. For example, if you have a bird phobia, a live bird would be placed close by you in the initial treatment session. You would have to adapt to your fears and conquer them immediately.

13 - Depression

Unlike some of the other neurotic behaviours, depression is part of our everyday vocabulary. Some people use it casually to mean they are temporarily “down in the dumps”. But depression is also related to much more serious emotional concerns.

Depression is a debilitating mood that lasts for several weeks or longer. It interferes with our work, our relationships, our social life, and our sense of personal worth. It is characterized by pessimism that interferes with the way a person needs to function in his or her everyday life. Some of the more specific symptoms include the following:

• irritability or sadness
• inexplicable fatigue
• aches and pains
• loss of appetite, digestion problems, constipation
• bouts of crying
• lack of sexual interest
• sleep disturbances
• feelings of anxiety, guilt, and worthlessness
• inability to concentrate or make decisions
• restlessness or lethargy
• thoughts of suicide

A combination of social/emotional factors along with genetic variables is thought to be the cause of depression. Unpleasant, stressful situations in one’s life can trigger depression such as loss of a job, serious financial difficulties, termination of a marriage or long term relationship, the onset of a serious illness, or the death of someone very close. A person’s life history is another factor to consider. As a child, the person may have been subjected to many traumas. A person may have endured physical or sexual abuse. However, many people who have experienced the horrors of being raised in a war-torn country do not develop depression.

An imbalance in one’s brain chemistry is another possible cause of depression according to recent research. A deficiency of serotonin can cause alteration of moods and the increase of negative thoughts and emotions. Physicians treating their depressed patients with antidepressants note that when the chemical imbalance is treated, the depression goes away. Then comes the question, Does depression alter the brain chemistry or does the imbalance in brain chemistry lead to the depression? Which one comes first? Another interesting question is, If depression is strictly due to a chemical imbalance, then why are the number of depressed people increasing dramatically over the past few decades? Perhaps depression is linked to increasing social problems in our society.

If depression is untreated, the possibility of a suicide risk increases. Even mild depression can reduce creative energy, so treatment is definitely recommended rather than simply letting the person come out of the depression by themselves. Approach a depressed acquaintance in the same way you would someone with a physical illness, and give them support. Listen if the person wants to talk about some of his or her problems. Help with daily chores if that is possible. Join the person for little social outings such as a walk, coffee, or going to a movie. People withdraw from others when they are depressed, but this is the time when they need outside contacts the most. To be mentally healthy, people need strong connections to meaningful employment, their communities, and, of course, their families.

If you are the depressed person, ask your family doctor for a referral to a counsellor, psychologist, or therapist. Sometimes a local distress line or crisis line may give you a place to start. Do not let depression go untreated.

14 - Brainwashing

The human mind is a complex and fascinating processor and creator of ideas. A person’s mind functions uniquely and has a direct impact on who he or she is personality. For these reasons, the progressive societies of the world find the idea of forcibly controlling someone else’s mind very abhorrent and unethical. This position about mind control has not always been endorsed, even in our own society. Certainly during wartime, these high ideals denouncing the use of mind control were not followed.

For example, during the Korean War in the early 1950s, communist powers used brainwashing or mind control as a weapon against captured prisoners. The idea was to destroy the individual’s personality and beliefs, and then reprogram or implant new ideas that were in line with the “enemy’s beliefs”. It is a very vicious way of influencing people and causing them to abandon the philosophy of life they voluntarily chose as they became adults.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States government decided that they should experiment and collect data about brainwashing so that they, too, could use this means of control. They asked a psychologist at a Montreal institute if he would collect information on mind control that would be useful to them. Canadians who came to the clinic for help with their psychological problems were used in the mind control experiments without their consent or their knowledge.

What sorts of maltreatment did these mentally ill patients suffer? The first step was to de-pattern or, rather, destroy the person’s original personality. Then, the patients would be vulnerable to new ideas and beliefs that could be implanted. Erasing the patients’ original ideas was accomplished by forcing them to live under strict environmental control. Some were given the hallucinogenic drug, LSD. Some were controlled by forcing them to sleep for long periods of time—even days, by administering drugs or using insulin injections to create a coma. High-voltage shock therapy was another method applied to control and alter the personalities of depressed patients. Another technique used to subdue patients was called psychic driving, which means that the person had to listen to tape recordings with repetitive messages until they ceased resisting. In some cases combinations of these treatments were applied.

Were the brainwashing experiments successful in accomplishing the task of controlling the minds’ of the people unfortunate enough to become patients or rather victims of such treatment? Most people in the program experienced permanent harm from the unethical methods used against them to alter their personalities and beliefs. Some lost many of their early memories; many experienced lasting nightmares from the treatment they received at the Montreal clinic. These people and their families have sought justice by bringing lawsuits against the CIA for initiating such a destructive program. The patients have received payment, but that does not compensate for the terrible damage to their minds and to their self-concepts.

Lesson Review

This lesson gave you the opportunity to study some of the unusual neurotic behaviours people develop when plagued by guilt, anxiety, and stress. Neurosis interferes with a person’s everyday functioning, but it is usually not serious enough to destroy completely the person’s sense of self and ability to cope with life. Neurosis takes many shapes and forms.