Archives for December, 2009

The Psychology of Depression. Part 7. Mode of Resolution

Posted By Kelly On Monday, December 7th 2009   under:  Manuscripts   Tags: ,    
I have just described the device for facilitating recovery from depression which is called identification, that is, the mechanism by which the depressed individual acts as though he were the lost love object. The psychodynamic mechanisms by which identification is accomplished are complex and not well understood. Suffice to say that under psychoanalytic scrutiny, it often appears that identification is accomplished by the fantasy of incorporating the lost object into ... Read More

The Psychology of Depression. Part 6. Mode of Resolution

Posted By Kelly On Monday, December 7th 2009   under:  Manuscripts   Tags: ,    
The foregoing constitutes a fairly hopeless picture of depression and the number of vicious circles implied suggests that there is a spontaneous tendency for depressions to become more severe. And yet it is well known that depressed individuals recover, often spontaneously. Moreover since depression is an affect which appears normally, there must be some normal mechanism for dissipating the depression and arranging for succession by another state of mind. Freud ... Read More

The Psychology of Depression. Part 5. The Role of Aggression and Guilt

Posted By Kelly On Sunday, December 6th 2009   under:  Manuscripts   Tags: ,    
To return to the subject of pathologic depression, we may explain the persistence of aggression after the depressive reaction has set in, as an instance of the return of the repressed. True, physical assault does not occur and almost all rebukes are directed against the individual himself, the loved ones who are concerned about him being spoken of most respectfully. Nevertheless passive resistance is recognized as a powerful tool of ... Read More

The Psychology of Depression. Part 4. The Role of Aggression and Guilt

Posted By Kelly On Sunday, December 6th 2009   under:  Manuscripts   Tags: ,    
A frequent component of normal depression and a constant component of pathologic depression is an aggressive tendency. Considering the formulation offered above, that depression is the response to deprivation of a love object and includes a wish for its restoration by the agency of some loving individual, one may be surprised to find that hostility is a significant element in the syndrome. However if we note that it occurs constantly ... Read More

The Psychology of Depression. Part 3. Functions and Nature

Posted By Kelly On Saturday, December 5th 2009   under:  Manuscripts   Tags: ,    
However the situation is less simple in cases of neurotic or psychotic depression. Here we are often able to see no obvious loss, or a loss which is trivial. When individuals with pathologic depression come under the scrutiny of psychoanalysis, a fantasied loss of love object in any of the forms mentioned above is invariably seen. The fantasy of loss is usually the consequence of wishes for the destruction or ... Read More

The Psychology of Depression. Part 2. Functions and Nature

Posted By Kelly On Saturday, December 5th 2009   under:  Manuscripts   Tags: ,    
Since depression is so obviously a component of normal daily life one may assume that it has a function. This problem may be approached by first considering the function of affects in general. I have suggested elsewhere that affects might be considered labels by which individuals might anticipate the results of any proposed course of action. Thus, given any set of environmental circumstances, the individual attempts experimentally to ascertain what ... Read More

The Psychology of Depression. Part 1

Posted By Kelly On Friday, December 4th 2009   under:  Manuscripts   Tags: ,    
November 9, 1954 Depression is one of the common affective phenomena of daily living and it is also one of the most common symptoms of serious psychic illness. When a symptom consists of the pathologic exaggeration of a normal function, studies of physiology and pathology are mutually illuminating. The phenomenon of depression is therefore presented here in the contexts of both normal function and disease. The formulations offered are derived from ... Read More

SSRI’s Inhibitory Effects

Posted By Kelly On Friday, December 4th 2009   under:  Question - Answer   Tags: , , , , , ,    
Question. Can you please give me your opinion on the P450 inhibitory effects of SSRIs, namely, fluoxetine, paroxetine, citalopram, sertraline and fluvoxamine? Which appears to have the least clinically significant effects on this and other liver enzymes? How do these effects demonstrate themselves to patients? How clinically significant are the effects? Answer. I'll give you the bottom line first, then fill in some of the details: if you are only worried ... Read More

Recurring Depression

Posted By Kelly On Thursday, December 3rd 2009   under:  Question - Answer   Tags: , , , , ,    
Question. I am a 33-year-old male who has suffered from major depression for about 10 years. I was also anorexic and bulimic around age 25. I have been in lengthy therapy several times, but every few years I seem to cycle back into a very depressed, immobilizing state. Medications (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Serzone, anti-anxiety) don't seem to help. I've always been emotional and sensitive. I am interested in hypnotherapy - ... Read More

Measuring Stress

Posted By Kelly On Tuesday, December 1st 2009   under:  Book review   Tags:    
Cohen S, Kessler RC, Underwood Gordon L, editors New York: Oxford University Press; 1997. 236 pp. with index ISBN 0-19-512120-1 (paper) "Stress" has become such an overused word that it is now almost a cliché. The Oxford English Dictionary has 10 different meanings for it. Because of these terminological difficulties, some consider that it should be discarded from the medical lexicon altogether. Nevertheless, "stress" has developed ... Read More
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