This paper questions self-therapeutic logic within melancholic delusion. The clinical cases presented here as a contribution teach us that melancholic psychotics can try to treat their delusional blame through self-inflicted violence, and also through hetero- aggressive behavior and crime. In each of these cases, the “self-accusation-self-punishment” relationship is at work. This balances out pleasure — to the extent that we can state that punishment, within ambivalence (moral suffering and inflicted punishment), is a necessary evil in melancholia.
Melancholic psychosis; delusion; crime; self-blame; self-punishment