ABSTRACT
Depressive guilt has its source in separation anxiety. If persecution anxiety stems from powerlessness, separation anxiety stems from the feeling of being unlovely. The infant who fails to introject a ‘good’ mother with whom to identify, will lack the foundation for confidence in its own lovability. The feeling of being unlovely links with self-blame. A first halter is placed on aggression, lest the mother be driven away. Aggression comes to be identified with the bad or unlovely part of the self – for it is responsible for the loss of the mother. Depression is the end point of aggression turned remorselessly back against the self, without any channels for displacement or sublimation.
In literature there are two archetypal depressive stories. There is Hamlet – son loses mother’s love, and blames himself; and the Ugly Duckling – daughter loses mother’s love, and blames herself.
The case of Franz Kafka stands out as being of singular importance for an understanding of modern guilt. Virtually all of Kafka’s works are autobiographical. They show the burden of an infinite load of depressive guilt. The story ‘The Hunger Artist’ is suggestive of Kafka’s full biography: maternal neglect leaving him undernourished and guilt-ridden, condemning him to a masochistic, self-obsessed vocation, seeking redemption in self-annihilation.
