Encyclopedia Neurotica

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addiction memoir
Increasingly popular literary genre in which the authors congratulate themselves for their triumphs over substance abuse.

adult temper tantrum
No longer the exclusive domain of small children, the temper tantrum is now acceptable grown-up behavior, and not just for athletes and celebrities; some management experts actually offer tips on how to lose your temper at the office for maximum advantage.

Age of Anxiety, the
Appellation bestowed on the 20th century by the poet W.H. Auden in his book-length poem of the same title, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1948.

anglolalia
The uncontrollable urge to affect a British accent, most often afflicting celebrities (Madonna, Faye Dunaway, Sammy Davis Jr., Kathleen Turner, Jessye Norman) and, for some reason, Reform rabbis.

bad choices
Psychobabble for 'dumb mistakes.'

catalog-induced anxiety
The anguish of envy.

cell yell
Loud talking on cell phones in public places by people with the apparent neurotic need to invade their own privacy.

clutter buddy
The burgeoning 'clutter management' movement has produced the clutter buddy, a recovering clutterer (formerly 'pack rat') who supports one actively obsessed with the accumulation of unnecessary objects, and 'clutter clinics' where clutterers learn to avoid such pitfalls as 'churning' -- moving clutter from one place to another instead of throwing it away.

creativity-equals-craziness equation
Romantic notion that creativity is a product of repression and that great artists are likely to be mentally unbalanced.

cyberchondria
Hypochondria resulting from seeing one's symptoms on a medical Web site.

emotional vulnerability
A strength that used to be a weakness.

guideline creep
Maddening tendency of experts to raise the bar on health-habit standards just when you thought you were doing okay, as when the U.S. government increased from half an hour to an hour the minimum amount of daily exercise necessary for optimum cardiovascular health.

guilt
Traditionally, remorse over having done something wrong; self-reproach for some moral failure. Now, a chronic, free-floating, unarticulated malaise, a festering sense of existential worthlessness. And then you feel guilty for feeling guilty.

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