ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on manic-depressive problem have sought to trace in greater detail the depressive and schizoid levels of conceptualization and analysis. This provides our diagnostic clinical framework. The manic-depressive condition is, in all its varying degrees of severity, a mixed condition, and denotes a very complex state of mind in which a basic problem is countered by defences which in turn call for further defences. This is clear in the papers in a 'Symposium on "Depressive" Illness' where the guilt factor seems to drop more and more into second place and the factor of regression comes more and more to the front. The total illness is very inadequately called manic-depressive, and should at least be called manic-depressive-regressive, recognizing that the schizoid component is more dangerous and deeper than the depressive one. The incompleteness of the 'depressive' diagnosis is, however, seen the moment we realize that human beings always prefer to feel bad and strong rather than weak.
