Vocab Dose - 2

The boon of the neurotic

In today's era of exquisite confusion - political, economic and otherwise - the neurotic would be a welcome guest, nervous company for nervous days, always ready to provide doses of that most potent vaccine against gloominess: wisecracking, urbane gloominess. Some of the reasons that “neurotic” has fallen out of colloquial usage are obvious. Freudian analysis lost its hold on the common consciousness, as well as in psychiatry, and some of Freud’s language lost its power. And scientists working to define mental disorders began to slice neurosis into ever finer pieces, like panic disorder, social anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder - all evocative terms that percolated into common usage, not to mention into online user groups, rock lyrics and TV shows. In 1994, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, psychiatry's encyclopaedia of mental disorders, officially dropped the word neurosis from the book. “The DSM is the lingua franca of psychiatry, and given what we know today the term feels old-fashioned and quaint,” said Dr. Michael First, a former editor of the manual. “With the general decline of value of Freud in our society, it is ultimately anachronistic.”

MATCH THE WORDS WITH THEIR MEANINGS

1. Era – (eer-uh) (n)   2. Exquisite – (ek-skwiz-it) (adj)   3. Neurotic – (nyoo-rot-ik) (n)   4. Company – (kuhm-puh-nee) (n)   5. Potent – (poht-nt) (adj)   6. Gloominess – (gloo-mee-ness) (n)   7. Wisecracking – (wahyz-krak-ing) (adj)   8. Urbane – (ur-beyn) (adj)   9. Colloquial – (kuh-loh-kwee-uhl) (adj) 10. Freudian – (froi-dee-uhn) (adj) 11. Hold – (hohld) (n) 12. Psychiatry – (sahy-kahy-uh-tree) (n) 13. Slice – (slahys) (v) 14. Finer – (fahy-ner) (adj) 15. Percolated – (pur-kuh-leyt-ed) (v) 16. Lingua franca – (ling-gwuh  frang-kuh) (n) 17. Quaint – (kweynt) (adj) 18. Anachronistic – (uh-nak-ruh-nis-tik) (adj)

a. the study and treatment of mental illness, emotional disturbance, and abnormal behaviour b. an act or manner of grasping something; a grip c. having the polish and suavity regarded as characteristic of sophisticated social life in major cities d. a witty remark or joke e. cut into pieces f. a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different. g. intensely felt, intense h. spread gradually through an area or group of people, absorbed i. a person, people or thing regarded as pleasant (or unpleasant) to be with j. smaller, more delicate k. sadness, dejection or melancholy l. attractively unusual or old-fashioned m. belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists, especially a thing that is conspicuously old-fashioned n. a long and distinct period of history p. used in ordinary or familiar conversation; not formal or literary q. relating to or influenced by Sigmund Freud (Austrian Psychiatrist 1856-1939) and his methods of psychoanalysis, especially with reference to the importance  of unconscious desires. r. a person who is abnormally sensitive, obsessive, or anxious s. having great power, influence, or effect

Answers

1. n	2. g	3. q	4. i	5. r
6. k	7. d	8. c	9. o	10. p
11. b	12. a	13. e	14. j	15. h
16. f	17. l	18. m