Patients with depression cover the spectrum, in terms of severity of psychopathology, between those receptive to analytic psychotherapy and those that require treatment with medication. In this paper, the author demonstrates how a psychoanalytic framework of understanding has a place in the latter group, and can aid general psychiatrists in relating to their depressed patients. The notion of a pathological ego-destructive superego taking over control in depression is explored, with the need to unseat it and replace it with a more mature superego providing an overall framework of approach to treatment.
Depression; medication; psychoanalytic framework; ego-destructive superego