ABSTRACT
A pathological depression associated with a blockage in emotional development is usually caused by something having gone wrong in early development. By 1963, in a paper entitled "The Value of Depression", D. W. Winnicott seems to be almost celebrating depression as a sign of health, creating individuals who are responsible members of society. The depression—or, more appropriately, sadness—is the psychological working-through of the sense of loss at the end of the time of merger—the pattern of mourning. The mood of depression is, therefore, associated with the preoccupation involved in what Winnicott describes as primary creativity: the creativity of creative living and/or the preoccupation of the creative artist. Winnicott points out that mother’s or father’s depression can too easily be used by the patient to avoid feeling personal depression, and that through analysis the patient can arrive at distinguishing between the parent’s and his own depression.
