[Psychopathology of depression (author's transl)].

Depression can be observed in individuals with any type of personality structure especially in situations in which change is involved. The mourning model is not sufficient to account for the type of difficulties, the particular mood and the lowered self-esteem so characteristic of depressive syndromes. The study of the psychological development of children helps us to sort out those situations which are of depressive type. However, not a single past incident during childhood can be clearly singled out as a causal factor of adult depression. Depressed adults as well as neurotics, psychotics, psychopaths or alcoholics have in common the fact that they have experienced early separation more often than control subjects. The attempts to isolate a particular aspect of the premorbid personality of depressed individuals are not at all conclusive. The notion of the typus-melancholicus (Tellenbach) has, however, the value of emphasizing the limiting character of these personalities: the need for a restricted perimeter of activity, limitations as concerns daily goals and painful sensitivity to change. The psychological reconstruction of depression can be done only after the event.