RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Compensation Neurosis
JF Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online
JO J Am Acad Psychiatry Law
FD American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
SP 263
OP 271
VO 14
IS 3
A1 Modlin, Herbert C.
YR 1986
UL http://jaapl.org/content/14/3/263.abstract
AB The concept of compensation neurosis developed in the wake of the nineteenth century Industrial Revolution and subsequent enactment of workmen's compensation laws. The nosologic designation of traumatic neurosis was not consensually accepted until after World War II; the compensation label was epithetlcally applied as a simplistic explanation of puzzling postaccident disability. In diagnostic evaluation of postaccident symptoms not attributable to tissue damage, these factors are relevant: secondary gain and loss; alteration in family dynamics; iatrogenic influences, particularly from industrial medical departments; liberalization of workmen's compensation laws; the symbolic significance of money in our culture; the climate of creeping socialism. One consequence stemming from the conceptualization of a compensation neurosis is implicit adherence to the anachronistic mind-body dichotomy.