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TWO ARTICLES BEGIN, RESPECTIVELY: " Paranoid manifestations are widespread and represent some of the distortions of personality of most people." (Bonime, 1955) ; (revised 1979)1; and, the second, " Depression is one of the commonest expressions of disturbed, pathological interpersonal relationships." (Bonime, 1960).
Since paranoidness and depression are likely to come about in the daily lives of nearly everyone, maybe there are some common elements in their psychodynamic roots and functioning.
During the course of a long delayed personal pursuit of the inter-relationship, there was published Meissner's (1978) extensive survey of the literature on paranoia, and his intensive firsthand clinical and theoretical investigation of the topic. In a volume copiously laden with material from practice, he felicitously offered the clear comment that "Paranoia and depression are closely related states, both clinically and theoretically." Implicit agreement.
As indicated, I fully agree with Meissner's (1978) statement that the conditions probably "share some of the same genetic roots" (p. 26), but because of his classical psychoanalytic position and my culturalist psychoanalytic orientation, my concurrence derives from different premises. The interlinkings of paranoia and depression have been variously described and speculated upon as, for example, maintenance of the paranoid structure to avoid the pain of underlying depression (Meissner, 1978, p. 125). My own feeling is that many of the underlying psychic functionings of the two