ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the inner world of a patient suffering from bipolar affective disorder, referred to as manic-depressive illness. Psychiatric research strongly suggests the existence of organic pathology in bipolar affective disorder. The chapter is not entering into an either/or debate; organic vs. psychological. It is hoping to explore the psychic life of a patient suffering from an organic disorder. Psychoanalysis offers something unique, for it allows people to observe and come closer to understanding the intimate subjective experience of people's patients’ minds. Abraham was the first psychoanalyst to treat manic-depressive patients. His understanding of depressed patients was that they suffered from a paralysis of love because of the overwhelming nature of their sadistic fantasies. The superiority over the object and the freedom from the harshness of the internal tormenting object in the manic phase is expressed by Abraham, Freud, and Klein.
