The present article uses psychoanalytic theory to discuss a clinical case that had initially been seen as a question of drug addiction. But during the process of constructing transference, a deep sadness related to melancholia became evident. Theoretical parallels were thus drawn between drug addiction and melancholia, which, in this case, led to the conclusion that drug addiction and melancholia derive from the same metapsychological source.
Drug addiction; melancholia; psychoanalysis; clinic