Neurosis

The formation of behavioral or psychosomatic symptoms as a result of the return of the repressed. A neurosis represents an instance where the ego's efforts to deal with its desires through repression, displacement, etc. fail: "A person only falls ill of a neurosis if his ego has lost the capacity to allocate his libido in some way" (Introductory Lectures 16.387). The failure of the ego and the increased insistence of the libido lead to symptoms that are as bad or worse than the conflict they are designed to replace. This term should be carefully distinguished from psychosis.