compulsion neurosis

noun

A psychiatric disorder characterised by recurrent compulsions or compulsive ideas; obsessive-compulsive disorder.

OriginGerman Zwangsneurose →
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Meanings

nouncompulsion neurosis (plural compulsion neuroses)

plural compulsion neuroses

  1. historicalhuman sciencesA psychiatric disorder characterised by recurrent compulsions or compulsive ideas; obsessive-compulsive disorder.

    [H]ere we are mainly interested in their negatives or the neuroses. Of this form, the most characteristic, as I already said, is the compulsion neurosis.

    1946, A. A. Brill, Lectures on Psychoanalytic Psychiatry, Alfred Knopf, page 220

Origin

  1. GermanZwangsneurose
  2. Englishcompulsion neurosis

Translating German Zwangsneurose.

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Cite this entry
APA

compulsion neurosis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/compulsion%20neurosis

MLA

“compulsion neurosis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/compulsion%20neurosis. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “compulsion neurosis,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/compulsion%20neurosis.

Source: compulsion neurosis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.