The broad sense of the term melancholia as used today brings it close to the concept of depression. This article establishes the limits and particularities of psychiatric discourse and proposes a psychopathological analysis of melancholia. The distinction between depression and melancholia is clinically relevant since the particular listening of the non-substantiality of the object indicated here involves the analyst's capacity for regression rather than for empathy and understanding. The focus on the somatic dimension of depression (insomnia) is also clinically important.
Melancholia; depression; psychopathology; nosology; absence