ABSTRACT
Jacques Press and Nick Temple open up an interesting dialogue based on their different theoretical backgrounds. For Jacques, the essence of depression linked to psychosomatics is a process of negativation, stemming from an unbearable early experience. Nick distinguishes two different descriptions of depression: the first is essential depression where the individual is cut off from affect and the conflict is displaced into somatic symptoms. The second melancholic kind of depression contains an active preoccupation with mental pain, guilt, and feelings of badness; in this type of depression there is continual conflict with an internal object that dominates the superego, which criticises and blames the patient. Whereas in Jacques’ understanding the object relation is lost, in Nick’s view the object is present, but it tortures and persecutes the subject by dominating the superego. For Jacques, the absence of the object might be the result of the patient’s disobjectalising move away from painfully experienced object. This might also lead to a persecutory dynamic, as Jacques’ patient tries to flee from his “fear of breakdown”, whilst Nick’s patient flees from the persecuting internal object.
