Some classic examples of neurotics are
Franz Kafka,
Todd Solondz,
Woody Allen,
Lucian Freud, and
Marcel Proust.
Neurosis is
pure symptom with no
disease to anchor it.
The neurotic treats the symptom of his or her troubles, but always in a largely erroneous way. For instance, a girl stuffs her face with food after a flashback of childhood sexual abuse, or a man impulsively washes his hands after thinking about another woman.
The sickness remains indefinable, intangible, and unspecified; it is purely a persistent feeling of disquiet. Accordingly, the neurotic is in a condition of constantly tending to the symptoms of an unknown, and worse, unknowable malady.