"issues" meaning problems

[Jonathan Lighter]

The latest OED online revisions include a Dec. 1982 ex. of psychological "issues." As the source is the NY Times, the sense must have been around for a while.

  I first noticed this usage at about the same time, perhaps a few months earlier, spoken offhandedly by a psychology professor in his fifties. A low-level functionary had been rude to him and, in describing the incident, he said that she "obviously had some issues."

  The phrase struck me because I understood exactly what he meant but wasn't sure how.

  JL

Nathan Bierma <nbierm65 at CALVIN.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Nathan Bierma
Subject: "issues" meaning problems
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Can anyone antedate, or shed more light on, the association of "issues" with
"psychological problems"?
(I'm not sure how to search ASD-L for this particular meaning; a simple word
search will yield a flood of irrelevancies, I fear ...)


Thanks,

Nathan Bierma
"On Language"
www.nbierma.com/language


OED (added 2003 ):
issue, n.
In pl. orig. and chiefly U.S. Emotional or psychological difficulties (freq.
with modifying word); points of emotional conflict.
1982N.Y. Times 8 Dec. C10/6 The more difficult aspect can come after alcohol
is removed. Then it becomes how do you deal with the emotions and intimacy
issues that were largely dealt with previously through alcohol?1991Longevity
Jan. 70/1 At the root of anniversary syndrome..are unresolved issues about the
loved one stemming from the past.1998Community Care 20 Aug. 46/5 (advt.)
Educational programme and 24-hour placement support for emotionally damaged
children and young people. Reparative work with attachment issues.

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