The objective behind this article is to give an understanding of the cultural relationship of melancholia and depression through a psychoanalysis perspective. From a Freudian standpoint, melancholia is a form of depression and therefore a symptom that can be found in any psychiatric structure. By creating a category for narcissistic psychoneuroses Freud brings to the fore the inefficiency found in the neurotic model for the understanding of melancholia. The authors propose a narcissistic-melancholic model for an understanding into contemporary pathologies. It is hereby noted that both melancholia as well as depression can be seen as pathologies, as much as the stand point of the individual when faced with pressure from a society concerning its narcissist nature.
melancholia; depression; narcissism; death drive; psychoanalysis