The Higher they Climb, the Lower they Fall

Author:

Samuel L. Safirstein1,Ralph Kaufman M.2

Affiliation:

1. Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry.

2. The Mount Sinai Hospital of New York.

Abstract

The opinion that depression is a reaction to a loss is supported. It is suggested that the loss is that of an inflated idealized version of the self which is a necessary aspect of living to the neurotic in order to derive pride, satisfaction and self-esteem. Self-idealization is a process which begins early in childhood in response to basic anxiety and develops on the level of magical, fantasied, wishful thinking. When events of life pierce the armour of self-glorification, the individual falls like a deflated balloon into the depth of despair and self-hate, the clinical expression of which is depression. Depression, through its slowing down of living processes, helps to isolate the individual from his environment and therefore permits the psychic apparatus to devote its energies to reinflate the balloon and restore the premorbid idealized image. Certain therapeutic implications inherent in this point of view are discussed. No claim is made that the suggested dynamic point of view is the exclusive dynamics of depression or that it obtains in all types of depressions.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

General Medicine

Reference8 articles.

Cited by 1 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Resistances encountered in the psychotherapy of depressed individuals;The American Journal of Psychoanalysis;1977-09

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