This is a critical discussion of the fundamental essays of Abraham, Freud, Rado, Deutsch and Fenichel on mourning and melancholia. Mania should be differentiated from the not truly euphoric 'anxiety driven pseudo-mania.' According to the author's view, the formulations of Abraham and Deutsch are not always complete 'with regard to possible heterosexual and homosexual conflicts—probably for the sake of simplicity of exposition'. He makes a plea for the use of economic and dynamic concepts and of emotional syllogisms the formulation of which should not be in strictly oral or anal terms. Further research is indicated especially in the clarification of a constitutional basis for manicdepressive reactions, whether biological in Freud's sense or an acquired tendency to oral fixations. The author feels that we need a psychodynamic differentiation of normal mourning, melancholia, neurotic and paradoxical depressions, as well as meaningful definitions of such terms as identification, incorporation, introjection and internalization.