Neurosis in the workplace

Abstract

In the history of medicine new diseases have appeared recurrently, frequently in epidemic form. "New" medical and surgical treatments become fashionable and "diagnosis" becomes a reinterpretation of ambiguous phenomena in accordance with prevailing concerns, often promoted by vested interests. Such an epidemic can be understood in its social context against its background of shared beliefs, social stresses and group demands. False rumours and other exacerbating factors can be identified and eliminated, and measures taken to control them. The management of such epidemics is a public health problem which demands community and institutional support as well as cooperation by the media.