On the Dark Side of Chronic Depression

"This is a long-awaited book integrating psychoanalytic insights into chronic severe depression with progress that has been made in psychoanalytic and sociocultural research. It is an excellent and unique contribution which all clinicians will benefit from."

Peter Fonagy, Head of the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at UCL; Chief Executive of the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, London; Consultant to the Child and Family Programme at the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine; and holds visiting professorships at Yale and Harvard Medical Schools.

"As the prevalence of depression grows, the need for better treatments is heightened. This volume provides an in-depth exploration of the psychodynamic and socio-cultural mechanisms of depression including new research on the role of early childhood trauma. I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to expand their understanding of depression beyond conventional approaches."

Richard D. Lane, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, The University of Arizona, USA

"Reading this book is an inspiring experience. A fresh approach is presented to the nature of chronic depression using modern interdisciplinary language. The book entails a promise of important new understanding of why the suffering of people with long-term depression has been so difficult to change. Highly recommendable."

Johannes Lehtonen, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, University of Eastern Finland; Adjunct Professor of Clinical Neurophysiology, University of Turku, Finland; Member of The Finnish Psychoanalytical Society

"A book for readers who sense the value of an in-depth integrated understanding of depression: how it is essential if an injured individual is to grow emotionally; and as well for all of us as creatures, each with our natures, histories, nationalities and cultures in the approaching global crisis of our species."

Dr David Taylor, Training & Supervising Analyst of the Institute of Psychoanalysis, London; Clinical Director of the Tavistock Adult Depression Study (TADS); Visiting Professor at UCL; and a trustee of the Melanie Klein Trust

"This book admirably shows why depression needs a psychoanalytic approach that goes beyond the symptoms and addresses the suffering human beings, their bodies and minds, their history and traumas, and their family and social life."

Ricardo Bernardi, Professor Emeritus at the School Medicine, Uruguay; "Honorary Member" ("Miembro de Honor") and Training Analyst of the Uruguayan Psychoanalytical Association (APU) and of the Uruguayan Society of Psychiatry; Full Member of the National Academy of Medicine, Uruguay; IPA Extraordinarily Meritorious Service to Psychoanalysis Award (2021); Mary S. Sigourney Award for Major Contribution to Psychoanalysis (1999); International Journal of Psychoanalysis (IJP) Best Paper Award (2003)

"This volume that originated in the work of the 2020 Joseph Sandler Conference in Lausanne offers readers at all levels of psychoanalytic experience a comprehensive, state-of-the-art exploration of an integrative model of depression seen from varying perspectives. These include empirical, metapsychological, social-scientific, research-based and clinical considerations. In doing so, it addresses core clinical issues of narcissism, trauma, intra-psychic and relational conflict and examines and exemplifies the important role of empirical research in psychoanalysis. The result is a much-valued resource for the understanding of the origins, presentations and treatment of depression in its many manifestations, that range from classical melancholia to essential depression and from neurosis to psychosis."

Howard B. Levine, MD, Editor-in-Chief, The Routledge WR Bion Studies Series