Depression as a Psychoanalytic Problem

Over the past few decades, psychoanalysis and dynamic psychiatry have been steadily stepping back from a key role in the understanding and treatment of depressive disorders. This book investigates the historical and philosophical basis for such retreat and offer readers a comprehensive, dynamically-oriented model of symptom formation in depression.

Paolo Azzone is a psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst. He works at the G. Salvini Hospital in Milan, Italy. Azzone substantially contributed to the establishment of a psychotherapy research tradition in Italy, with empirical studies on the psychotherapy process and on dreams. His current interests include psychoanalytic treatment of depression and the intersections between psychoanalysis and philosophy, history, and religious experience. He is co-editor of La mente dell'anima (The Mind of Soul), 2008.

Prefatory Note Acknowledgments Part I: Historical Facts: Depression and Other Socially Shared Representations of Pain in Western Civilization Chapter One: Sadness and Black Bile Chapter Two: Sadness, Error and Sin Chapter Three: Sadness and Human Societies Part II: Clinical Facts Chapter Four: Looking through a Distortive Mirror: Descriptive Psychopathology of Depression from a Psychoanalytic Perspective Chapter Five: Encountering Depression in the Context of Mental Health Services: The Contribution from Psychoanalytic Literature Part III: The Model Chapter Six: A Model of the Process of Formation of Depressive Symptoms Chapter Seven: Epistemological Observations References