ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses the specific contribution of psychoanalysis to the understanding of depression. The psychoanalytic concept of detachment that led to a revolution in how children were treated in hospitals is underlined. The author emphasises the double-edged epistemological position of psychoanalysis: on the one hand, psychoanalysis needs to be in dialogue with other scientific disciplines, like developmental psychology, memory research, and neuroscience. On the other hand, psychoanalysis represents an in-depth psychological research method that is able to capture data that are not accessible by other methods. It is argued that within a diverse research field, where depression is studied from different angles – as a disorder of the brain and in terms of cognitive deficits – the contribution of psychoanalysis is to study depression at the level of psychological causation. The psychoanalytic understanding of depressive states in terms of unconscious interpretation and meaning of experience represents a distinct contribution. Finally, criticising the zeitgeist of modern culture, the chapter discusses implications of viewing depression as an illness and reflects on depression as a normal aspect of life.
