In this article a theoretical survey is given about the psychiatric problems concerning the underlying factors of adaptation and maladaptation in the worksituation. Attention is paid to the specific situational and iatrogenic factors which complicate the symptomatology. The traditional classification of 'occupational neurosis' offers an incorrect impression about the complicated and multifactorial etiology of these disturbances. In particular, the importante is stressed of the primary and secondary preventive measures in industrial psychiatry.