Psychasthenia: what is it and what disorders is it associated with?

This psychological concept is one of the mental characteristics measured by the MMPI tests.

There are concepts within the field of psychology that have existed practically since the beginning of psychology and although they are not currently used in the same way, they can still serve for the evaluation and identification of a series of psychological alterations or disorders.

One of them is psychasthenia, currently conceived as a personality trait.. Those who present this characteristic may experience high levels of anxiety, obsessions and even episodes of depersonalization.

What is psychasthenia?

Although the concept of psychasthenia has changed a lot over the years, psychasthenia is considered as a psychological or mental stress disorder characterized by presenting symptoms associated with phobias, obsessions, compulsions or anxiety disorders..

This term was first described in 1903 by the psychologist and neurologist Pierre Janet, who elaborated a clinical picture that included the different varieties of phobias, anxieties and obsessions typical of its symptomatology.

Despite this, nowadays psychasthenia is not considered as a disorder or clinical diagnosis, it is still considered as one more personality factor in the clinical diagnosis. a personality factor within the clinical assessment scales of the MMPIan assessment test used to detect personality and behavioral disturbances.

In this sense, as a personality trait, psychasthenia is distinguished by the following characteristics a lack of control of conscious thought and memoryThis results in scattered thoughts and language or a tendency to forget what one was talking about.

This disintegrated speech is the result of poorly ordered thought processes, which manifest themselves in sentences that are not very congruent and are often incomprehensible to listeners.These are manifested by sentences that are not very congruent and are often incomprehensible to the people who listen to them. In addition, the person with psychasthenia traits tends to manifest intense and irrational fears associated with their attention and concentration difficulties. As well as severe stress and anxiety.

All these symptoms make psychasthenia to be understood as a breakdown of psychological tension, which can become permanent, degenerative and, according to some theorists, hereditary.

What are the symptoms?

Although it is not considered a disorder or psychological disorder with a specific diagnostic label, psychasthenia is characterized by a series of signs in those people in whom it occurs.

These symptoms characterize the personality of the person, which is defined by being of an anxious nature and presenting phobic, obsessive or compulsive symptomatology, among others. among others. The severity of this clinical picture may vary among people who present it. However, this symptomatology is usually quite intense, reaching the point of interfering with the person's daily life and well-being.

The following is a description of the main characteristics or symptoms of the psychasthenic personality.

1. Anxiety

Anxiety has traditionally been identified as the main symptom of psychasthenia, which causes and generates the rest of the anxious symptomatology that characterizes it. People with psychasthenia tend to manifest constantly high states of anxiety and tension, which leads them to the tension, which leads them to nervousness and anguish on a regular basis.

2. Phobias

Phobias consist of a series of disorders or mental alterations that are characterized by provoking in the person sensations of disproportionate and irrational fear and dread before the appearance of certain stimuli, objects or specific situations.

This variety of fear disorder generates clinically significant anxiety symptoms as long as the person is in front of the stimulus considered as phobic, causing him/her to carry out all kinds of behaviors and behaviors to avoid or flee the feared situation.

3. Nervous tics

Due to the high degree of tension caused by psychasthenia, it is very possible that the person experiences a series of sudden and uncontrolled tics and movements known as tics. These muscular reactions are distinguished by being convulsive, sudden and exaggerated..

4. Obsessions

The obsessions are traditionally defined as a series of affective alterations provoked by the development of fixed and recurrent ideas and thoughts in the mind of the person.

These obsessive thoughts are usually associated with a specific idea that appears recurrently, causing serious concern, high levels of distress and anxiety.

5. Compulsions

Associated with obsessive thoughts or ideas are compulsions. This concept refers to the need felt by the person to perform repetitive behaviors or behaviors that are repetitive in nature..

These behaviors are carried out with the aim of reducing the anxiety reactions provoked by the obsessive ideas and thoughts. Although obsessive-compulsive reactions form a specific clinical picture of OCD, in psychasthenia they appear as part of its symptomatology.

6. Depersonalization

The last of these symptoms is depersonalization. Depersonalization consists of a disorder in which the person experiences an altered perception of herself in which she feels that her mind is detached from her body and that she can perceive it from outside, as an observer.

Concept according to the MMPI

As mentioned above, although psychasthenia is no longer considered a mental illness or disorder as such, the MMPI continues to list it as such, the MMPI continues to include it as a pathological alteration of the personality, very close to obsessive-compulsive disorder. very close to obsessive-compulsive disorder.

In addition, the MMPI user's manual adds that these people tend to experience extreme and abnormal feelings of guilt as well, pathological concentration problems or a tendency to self-criticism.

Although it cannot be considered as a diagnostic label, this subscale facilitates the identification of personality traits in which lack of control of conscious thought, memory disturbances and tendency to anxiety and obsessive thinking are prevalent.