The psychological organization of depression

Abstract

On the basis of the intensive psychotherapy of about 40 depressed patients over the course of 2 decades, 3 premorbid types of depressive personality were described. The personality types are based on a dominant other relationship, a dominant goal and a form of character structure or personality disorder. Typical childhood experiences of depressive adults were described and the theory of the nature of depression as a human experience was discussed. Depression was characterized as a limitation of alternate ways of thinking and as self-inhibition from new experiences.