The Concept of Depression in Freud and Jung

Sigmund Freud argues that although there exist many different clinical forms of depression, or melancholia as he calls it, each form is characterized by an internal guilt caused by the loss or devaluation of a sexual object (Freud, 1966, 531). An understanding of several terms as Freud uses them is necessary for a complete understanding of his theory of depression.

Basically, Freudian psychoanalytic theory argues that our psychological life is determined by our conscious and unconscious life (Freud, 1960, 3). Our conscious life, however, is transitory, in the sense that concepts or memories that are conscious or manifest at any given time may become preconscious or unconscious at a later time. If ideas are preconscious, Freudian theory argues that they are latent, which means they are capable of becoming conscious and they continue to affect our conscious life (4). However, if these ideas are unconscious, Freudian theory argues that they have been repressed and that a specific and determined opposing psychic force whose job it is to govern the repression of certain ideas at certain times represses them (5).

The ego is the force that controls the repression of unconscious ideas. Freudian theory argues that each individual possesses a coherent organization of mental processes called the ego (8). The ego governs our conscious actions inasmuch as it governs our reactions to external stimuli (8). However, the ego also controls our

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withdraws his desire from an object through a process whereby the object becomes internalized within the melancholic's ego. Consequently, the melancholic now treats his own ego as the abandoned sexual object and he aims all his aggression and expressions of revenge against his own ego (531). In such cases, Freud argues a melancholic's suicidal tendencies can be explained by self-hatred. The second form of identification through which a person withdraws his desire from an object is classified as hysterical identification. In such cases, the person assimilates into his ego the symptoms or feelings of loss he may have witnessed in others in a situation similar to himself (Freud, 1965, 183). In either case, the person has transformed the erotic object-choice in a manner that has altered his ego (Freud, 1960, 24). The alteration is the ego's attempt to control the id's passions by offering itself as a substitute. However, the ego has succeeded in creating a narcissistic fixation within the individual that Freudian theory calls melancholia, or depression (Freud, 1966, 532). One observable characteristic of Freudian depression is the melancholic's high degree of awareness of his illness (546). However, Freud argues that what the melan

Category: Psychology - T