ABSTRACT
A feature of the depressive position is that it applies to an area of clinical psychiatry that is half-way between the places of origin of psychoneurosis and of psychosis respectively. The Oedipus complex characterizes normal or healthy development of children, and the Depressive Position is a normal stage in the development of healthy infants. The term depressive position seems to imply that infants in health pass through a stage of depression, or mood illness. In the concept of the depressive position in normal development there is no implication that infants normally become depressed. One defence against depressive anxiety is a relative inhibition of the instinct itself, which gives a quantitative diminution of all sequelae of instinctual experiences. If in an individual the depressive position has been achieved and fully established, then the reaction to loss is grief or sadness.
