We have had an interesting encounter with the prolonged severe depression that often follows the acute disorganized state labeled schizophrenia. In discussions with colleagues, we have been struck by their accounts of the same sort of occurrence at analogous points in work with people with many types of problems. This has led us to sense that we may be touching on issues with which many therapists have experience not limited to so-called schizophrenic patients.

Stimulated by these discussions we have come to think of this depression as one of many that occur at nodal points in a process of change. The psychodynamics which we postulate suggest that this depression is a response to the challenge of growth to a more autonomous level of functioning. In this view, depression is a response to a feared potential loss—loss of the possibility of