Despair, Depression, and Melancholia
Despair, Depression, and Melancholia
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Issue Date
1989
Authors
Keller, Aviva
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Abstract
This paper describes psychoanalytic, existential psychotherapeutic, and Jungian theories of neurosis and suffering. It focuses on interpretations of depression within these three philosophical contexts. Discussions with clinicians of each orientation are summarized and compared in an effort to clarify some of the clinical aspects of treatment. The differences, similarities, and general significance of the three directions are summarized.
Psychoanalysis views depression as a pathological denial of libidinal desire and its consequences. Freud and his followers are the only ones of the three orientations who tried to discover and explain fundamental psychic conflicts and structures common to depressive individuals. Both later schools refuse to focus on classifying pathology but view it in the light of the individual's specific context. Jung viewed depression as a regressive state blocking the transformation of instinctive, ethical, or spiritual drives. Existential therapists regard it as an effort to withdraw from real suffering. They differentiate depression from despair. Depression represents a denial of the individual's truth, whereas despair is an ontological experience of loneliness and anxiety, based on the actual human condition. Existentialists do not consider despair pathological but do its denial. It seems invaluable for clinicians to be aware of these divergent points of view which share a focus on the individual's desire, meaning, and ability to make choices and change. Although none totally disregard the physical causes and ramifications of depression, they regard suffering as a meaningful and significant human experience that needs to be faced.