The concept of dependency and its complex interrelationship with depression is reviewed. Dependency is an elusive concept which the author feels encompasses three distinct elements: (1) affective dependence, having to do with the uncertainty of being loved, and related to the psychoanalytic concept of the oral personality, the lack of an internalized loving parent, separation anxiety, and the need for approval from others; 2) ontological dependence: the lack of a sense of identity, for which the individual compensates by attaching himself to another and borrowing his identity; 3) deferential dependency, which is related to the inclination toward humility, pessimism, self-blame, deference, and abasement. This element is related to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory scale of depression. This writer observes that the article raises more questions than it answers.