PSYCHONEUROSES AND NEUROPSYCHOSES: FREUD, POST-FREUDIANS, AND DSM/ICD

Abstract

This study examines the distinction between psychoneuroses and neuropsychoses in Freud’s work on the basis of a documentary analysis of the original German texts compared with their English and Portuguese translations, highlighting how this translation process generated conceptual ambiguity. Freud initially used the term Neuropsychosen as a synonym for psychoneurosis but later reserved the term “psychosis” for severe cases involving a rupture with reality. The results of the analysis reveal that the literal translation of the German term “neuropsychoses,” in both English and Portuguese, induced misinterpretations, suggesting that Freud was already referring to psychosis in its modern sense. The article also discusses post-Freudian reinterpretations, particularly the contributions of Klein and Lacan, and draws a parallel with contemporary psychiatric classifications (DSM/ICD), which abandoned the term “neurosis” in favor of specific descriptive categories. It is concluded that the historical trajectory of these translations reveals both the conceptual richness of psychoanalysis and its growing divergence from current psychiatric nosography, with implications for the contemporary reading of Freud’s work.