This paper uses the Biblical story of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden as a metaphor for the depressive position, wherein integration, development and maturation take place, and the confluence of hatred and love towards the object gives rise to sadness and guilt feelings. Adam and Eve took an important developmental step by eating fruit from the tree of knowledge, learning to distinguish between good and evil, but were banished from the Garden. They had set foot on the bridge between the internal and external worlds, where there is constant movement, and moved towards seeing the Other and developing a sense of reality. The myth shows how painful such maturation can be. Clinical material from the psychoanalysis of a traumatized child is used to illustrate how the depressive position can be a near-impossible step and an experience as brutal as the expulsion from the Garden of Eden.