ABSTRACT

The method of “psychoanalytic expert validation” proposed very close to clinical practice. Supervision and intervision groups, as well as courses with candidates or International Psychoanalytical Association members, could be systematically used to expertly validate ongoing psychoanalyses and document the knowledge gained in extended case reports with different theoretical foci. The psychoanalytical expert validation proved to be very helpful for the publication of the many follow-up interviews. It helped to condense the complexity of the clinical material in a functional way, taking into account possible “blind spots” of the interviewer. Modern depression research postulates a multi-factorial model of explanation: genetic vulnerability, early object relations, environmental factors, traumatisation, and acute individual, institutional, and social stress situations all intertwine in the development of a severe depressive dysfunction. Epigenetic and neurobiological studies give new relevance to the famous studies of Rene Spitz on anaclitic depression and hospitalism in the 1940s.