[What protects against neurosis? Results of a comparative study of neurotic patients with high risk factors and healthy probands].

In a study of 103 adult neurotic persons and a parallel control group of well persons comparable in terms of age, gender and occupation, a total of 48 patients was found to have had a background of extreme family conflict, while 32 of the persons in the control group came from like backgrounds. The persons in these two high-risk groups were examined for differences in their respective histories and in their present life circumstances. The healthy persons could be distinguished from the neurotic persons in the following various respects: 1. through a lack of single-risk factors during childhood and youth (e.g. very young mothers), 2. through an overall lower level of stress during childhood and youth, 3. through a more positive mother-imago, 4. through the presence of compensatory parental relationships, as well as 5. through avoidance-behavior in adulthood in which premature commitments which might otherwise be difficult to dissolve, are circumvented. The findings were further discussed with respect to the disparate family-dynamics to be found in the backgrounds of the patient group and the control group.