Review article

https://doi.org/10.24869/spsih.2020.72

Depression in the Light of Some Psychoanalytic Theories

Zorana Kušević ; University of Zagreb, Medical School, Zagreb; Clinical Hospital Centre Zagreb, Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Zagreb
Tea Friščić ; Clinical Hospital Sveti Duh, Zagreb
Goran Babić ; Private Psychiatric Medical Office for Psychotherapy and Psychopharmacotherapy, Zagreb
Dunja Jurić Vukelić orcid.org/0000-0003-2757-201X ; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Croatian Studies, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The aim of this selective review article is to summarize some of the best-known psychoanalytic theories regarding depression. Since Freud’s Mourning and Melancholia in 1917, psychoanalysis has made considerable steps forward in the interpretation of depression. Depression was seen as a despairing cry for love, aggression towards the self, a conflict of the ego, a fixation on experiences of helplessness and powerlessness, an expression of the neurotic personality structure, and depressive position. Depression is often linked with aggression, anxiety, guilt, and narcissism. In the classic psychoanalytic view of depression, orality plays a significant role. As psychoanalytic theories evolved, some important concepts emerged: the cognitive triad, which includes negative perceptions of the self, world, and future as an important variable in depression, “sociotropic” (socially dependent) and “autonomous” types of depression, the dominant other, and the role of the therapist who can become the dominant or significant third. Psychoanalytic theories from the end of 20th century divide depression into anaclitic and introjective based on psychopathology. Authors in the 21th century showed the neurohormonal, neurochemical, and neuroimmunological background of depression, in a way confirming some of the classic psychoanalytic theories.

Keywords

Depression; Psychoanalysis; Psychoanalytic theory

Hrčak ID:

238171

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/238171

Publication date:

21.5.2020.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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