Compensation neurosis

Abstract

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 epithetically 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.