You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
In neurosis, depression appears under three typical circumstances:
Punitive action of the inner conscience: when the antilibidinous part of the superego (“daimonion”) can prove a discrepancy between ego and ego ideal; the ego's acceptance of punishment is manifested in depression.
Alibi production of the unconscious ego: guilt and unhappiness are magnified and inflated, and shifted to a substitute wish for which the guilt is accepted in order to deny the original indictment (“mechanism of taking the blame for the lesser crime”). E.g., in street-fear the real intrapsychic wish (“crime” from the standpoint of the punitive conscience) is peeping; this voyeuristic wish is denied, the substitute “crime” of exhibitionism acknowledged; penance is then paid for the latter. A subdivision of 2 is “preventive depression”: this is the result of the unconscious anticipation-tendency. Anticipating the expected punishment, the unconscious ego produces the depression beforehand, thus presenting to the inner conscience anticipatory punishment—but for the lesser crime. (Details can be found in THE SUPEREGO, (Grune & Stratton, 1952) pp. 250 ff. The whole problem of depression is discussed ibidem, pp. 78 ff.)
Dissatisfaction of the unconscious ego: when the latter can no longer (or temporarily cannot) cope with its hopeless double task— converting punishment emanating from the superego into psychic masochism, and changing id wishes into substitute wishes more acceptable to the superego (see “mechanism of taking the blame for the lesser crime”).
In all three cases, depression is a defense created by the unconscious ego.
Interestingly enough, the defensive cunning of the unconscious ego frequently goes one step further, and produces another type of alibi-depression, for which the name “making-a-case” -type of depression is suggested. What it amounts to is that an instance in which the ego is really without guilt is selected, and a test case of innocence produced. A depression so produced is d