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# Psychogenic
- URL: https://www.descentpress.com/index/psychogenic/
- Published: 2026-09-05T04:40:52.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-10T02:25:18.000Z
- Description: Psychogenic describes mental disturbances having a psychological rather than physiological origin. Related: psychogenesis; neurosis; psyche; psychoid (border, not synonym).
- Author: Jae Botávn
- Tags: #index, #Import 2026-09-04 23:45

## 1\. Etymology

**Psychogenic** describes **mental disturbances having a psychological rather than physiological origin**. Related: psychogenesis; [neurosis](https://www.descentpress.com/index/neurosis/); [psyche](https://www.descentpress.com/index/psyche/); [psychoid](https://www.descentpress.com/index/psychoid/) (border, not synonym).

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## 2\. Plain summary

Sharp’s head is clinical and short: psychogenic means the essential cause—or the condition under which a disturbance arises—is of a psychic nature. Classic instances: psychic shock, gruelling conflict, wrong psychic adaptation, fatal illusion. Jung’s line that “nobody doubts that the neuroses are psychogenic” anchors the house [neurosis](https://www.descentpress.com/index/neurosis/) leaf; this lemma keeps the adjective itself.

Psychogenic is not [psychoid](https://www.descentpress.com/index/psychoid/). Psychoid names the psyche–matter border and the archetype as such; psychogenic names etiology that is psychological rather than organic. Related: [abaissement-du-niveau-mental](https://www.descentpress.com/index/abaissement-du-niveau-mental/) as a facilitating condition for some psychoses Jung also treated as largely psychogenic.

**Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common psychogenic motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):**  
psychological vs physiological origin; essential cause of [neurosis](https://www.descentpress.com/index/neurosis/) psychic; psychic shock; conflict; wrong adaptation; fatal illusion; distance from organic monocausality; not synonym of [psychoid](https://www.descentpress.com/index/psychoid/); kinship with psychogenesis of schizophrenia debates (Jung reserved judgment on biological contribution).

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## 3\. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology psychogenic is an **etiological adjective** locating the decisive condition of a disturbance in psychic process. Sharp alone carries a dedicated head citing CW 3 ¶496; Samuels has no separate *psychogenic* lemma this vessel pass (route via *neurosis* / *psyche*). Do not invent loci.

## 4\. Lexicon

**Sharp (1991)**

> Psychogenic. Descriptive of mental disturbances having a psychological rather than physiological origin. … Nobody doubts that the neuroses are psychogenic. “Psychogenesis” means that the essential cause of a neurosis, or the condition under which it arises, is of a psychic nature. It may, for instance, be a psychic shock, a gruelling conflict, a wrong kind of psychic adaptation, a fatal illusion, and so on.

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 3 ¶496.

**Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986)** — no dedicated *psychogenic* head

> *(None.)* Related terrain under neurosis / psyche.

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## 5\. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

> Today nobody doubts that the neuroses are psychogenic. "Psychogenesis" means that the essential cause of a neurosis, or the condition under which it arises, is of a psychic nature. It may, for instance, be a psychic shock, a gruelling conflict, a wrong kind of psychic adaptation, a fatal illusion, and so on.  
> (Jung, 1928/1960, CW 3, ¶496) prefer had marked unverified — corrected on vessel.

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**See also:** [neurosis](https://www.descentpress.com/index/neurosis/); [psyche](https://www.descentpress.com/index/psyche/); [psychoid](https://www.descentpress.com/index/psychoid/); [psychization](https://www.descentpress.com/index/psychization/); [abaissement-du-niveau-mental](https://www.descentpress.com/index/abaissement-du-niveau-mental/); [complex](https://www.descentpress.com/index/complex/).

## References

Jung, C. G. (1960). Mental disease and the psyche. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), *The collected works of C. G. Jung* (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 3, ¶496). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1928)

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). *A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis*. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). *Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts*. Inner City Books.

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