Cullen and the earliest use of the term "neurosis" in medicine

The term "neurosis" in its technical, or medical, sense, was coined in 1769 with the publication of the first edition of the famous Synopsis Nosologiae Methodicae, by the Scottish physician William Cullen (1710-1790). According to a classification based on Linnaeus's taxonomy, the concept refers to a class of general affections of the nervous system that are not accompanied by fever and that especially affect sensitivity and movement. The category consists of four specific "orders" of phenomena: comas, adynamias, spasmodic affections without fever, and vesanias, such as manias (madness), and melancholia.

Neuroses; psychosis; Cullen; taxonomy