英：neurosis; 法：nevrose; 德：Neurose
“神经症”原本是一个精神病学的术语，但是在19世纪，该词渐渐开始表示以广泛多样的症状来界定的神经障碍的整个范围。弗洛伊德以很多不同的方式来使用这一术语，有时在他的早期著作中将它用作所有心理障碍的统称，有时则用它来表示心理障碍的一种特定类别 (即与精神病[PSYCHOSIS]相对立)。
在拉康的著作中，神经症这一术语始终是相对于精神病和性倒错 (PERVERSION)而出现的，它指的并非是一套症状的集合，而是一种特殊的临床结构 (STRUCTURE)。此种用该术语来表示一个结构的做法，便对弗洛伊德在神经症与正常态之间的区分提出了质疑。弗洛伊德把这一区分纯粹奠定在数量因素的基础之上 (“精神分析的研究发现，在正常人与神经症患者的生活之间没有任何根本性的区分，而只有数量上的差别”[Freud, 190Oa: SEV, 373])。然而，这并非一种结构性的区分。因此，从结构上讲，正常的主体与神经症患者之间就不存在任何的区别。因而，拉康的疾病分类学便鉴别出了三种临床结构：神经症、精神病和性倒错，在这些结构中根本没有任何能够被称作正常的“心理健康”的位置 (S8,374-5: 亦见：E, 163)。正常的结构，在占绝大多数人口的统计学的意义上，便是神经症，而“心理健康”则是永远都不可能实现的一种有关整体性的虚假的理想，因为主体在本质上是分裂的。因而，虽然弗洛伊德把神经症视作一种可以治愈的疾病，但是拉康则把神经症看作一种无法改变的结构。因此，精神分析治疗的目标便不是神经症的根除，而是主体相对于神经症的位置的修改 (见：分析的结束[END OF ANALYSIS]).
根据拉康的说法，“神经症的结构在本质上是一个问题”（S3,174)。神经症即“存在 (being)向主体提出的一个问题”(E, 168). 神经症的两种形式（即癔症[HYSTERIA]与强迫型神经症[OBSESSIONAL NEUROSIS])便是根据这一问题的内容来加以区分的。癔症患者的问题 (“我是男人还是女人？”)联系着主体的性别，而强迫型神经症患者的问题 (“生存抑或毁灭？”)则联系着主体自身存在 (existence)的偶然性。这两个问题 (有关性别同一性的癔症问题，以及有关死亡/生存的强迫症问题)“碰巧都是在能指中正好找不到任何解答的两个终极问题，神经症患者也正是因此而被赋予了其存在 (existential)的价值”(S3,190)
拉康偶尔也会把恐怖症 (PHOBIA)连同癔症与强迫型神经症一起列为神经症，从而引发了神经症的形式到底有两种还是三种的问题。
(nevrose)'Neurosis'is originally a psychiatric term which came to denote, in thenineteenth century, a whole range of nervous disorders defined by a wide variety ofsymptoms. Freud uses the term in a number of ways, sometimes as a general term for allmental disorders in his early work, and sometimes to denote a specific class of mentaldisorders (i.e.in opposition to PSYCHOSIS).
In Lacan's work, the term neurosis always figures in opposition to psychosis andPERVERSION, and refers not to a set of symptoms but to a particular clinicalSTRUCTURE. This use of the term to designate a structure problematises Freud'sdistinction between neurosis and normality. Freud bases this distinction purely onquantitive factors (psychoanalytic research finds no fundamental but only quantitative distinctions between normal and neurotic life', Freud 1900a: SE V, 373), which is not astructural distinction. In structural terms, therefore, there is no distinction between thenormal subject and the neurotic. Thus Lacanian nosology identifies three clinicalstructures: neurosis, psychosis and perversion, in which there is no position of 'mentalhealth'which could be called normal (S8,374-5; but see E, 163). The normal structure, in the sense of that which is found in the statistical majority of the population, is neurosis, and 'mental health'is an illusory ideal of wholeness which can never be attained becausethe subject is essentially split. Thus whereas Freud sees neurosis as an illness that can becured, Lacan sees neurosis as a structure that cannot be altered. The aim ofpsychoanalytic treatment is therefore not the eradication of the neurosis but themodification of the subject's position vis-a-vis the neurosis (see END OF ANALYSIS).
According to Lacan,'the structure of a neurosis is essentially a question' (S3,174). Neurosis 'is a question that being poses for the subject' (E, 168). The two forms ofneurosis (HYSTERIA and OBSESSIONAL NEUROSIS) are distinguished by thecontent of the question. The question of the hysteric ('Am I a man or a woman?') relatesto one's sex, whereas the question of the obsessional neurotic ('To be or not to be?') relates to the contingency of one's own existence. These two questions (the hystericalquestion about sexual identity, and the obsessional question about death/existence) are asit happens the two ultimate questions that have precisely no solution in the signifier. Thisis what gives neurotics their existential value' (S3,190).
At times Lacan lists PHOBIA as a neurosis alongside hysteria and obsessionalneurosis, thus raising the question of whether there are not two but three forms ofneurosis (e.g.E, 168).