Different types of depression show diverse psychodynamics and diverse narratives. There is a "depressive discourse," whereby affective states are contextualized and affective investments retained. The ability to chain signifiers depends on the mourning for the lost object, but this mourning is impossible in melancholia. A "melancholic discourse" thus arises where the absence of historicity for the affections can be seen, in a nihilistic narrative, without fantasmatic expressions.
Depressions; narratives; ego ideal; mourning