Medicine: THE LINGO

Much of psychiatry’s technical jargon has been taken over and rubbed the wrong way by laymen. Some of the most popular terms, correctly defined:

psychiatry. The science of healing diseases of the mind, a branch of medicine. (Psychiatrists must be M.D.s.)

alienist. An out-of-date word for psychiatrist.

psychology. A science that investigates and describes the mind. “Clinical psychology” investigates mental illness or maladjustment. (Psychologists need not be M.D.s.)

neurology. A branch of medicine that deals with diseases of the nerves, brain and spinal cord.

psychoneurosis (or neurosis). A form of mental disease, characterized by conflicting emotions and bad adjustment to environment. Symptoms: nervousness, attacks of anxiety, hysteria, depression, fatigue, etc.

psychoneurotic (or neurotic). One who displays the above symptoms.

psychosis. A mental disease, more serious than a neurosis; it almost always requires hospitalization. In pre-psychiatric days, psychosis was called “insanity.”

Oedipus complex. Freud’s term for a male’s feeling—started in babyhood —of rivalry with his father, and excessive attachment to his mother. (Oedipus was the Greek hero who unknowingly murdered his father and married his mother.)

psychoanalysis. A psychological theory. Also one method of treating mental illness: by uncovering deeply hidden emotional conflicts.

unconscious. The submerged part of the mind that contains urges, feelings and drives forgotten or ignored by the conscious part of the mind.

subconscious. “Transition” zone between the Conscious and Unconscious.

id. The part of the Unconscious that contains man’s primitive, animal-like “I want” drives.

ego. The seat of the Conscious, where decisions are made.

superego. The conscience.

repression. Unconscious “forgetting” of something the Id wants.

sublimation. Harnessing an Iddish desire into a decent disguise (e.g., taking out an unconscious sexual or aggressive drive in work, play or art).

conversion. Not to be confused with the religious term. A symptom of mental sickness: an unfulfilled, unconscious desire causes a bodily ache, pain, etc. (e.g., an upset stomach because of a disappointment in love).

inferiority complex. Conscious suffering from an unconscious feeling of unworthiness or guilt.

psychosomatic medicine. Study of the relation of bodily disorders and diseases to emotional stress.