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Melancholia from the Perspective of the Self

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Abstract

Referring mainly to the experiences of the patient, phenomenologicalanthropological diagnostics is shown as a supplement to a symptomatologicalcriteriological one. Since Greek Antiquity up to modern diagnostic glossaries there is the question of the structure of melancholia and mania and their interrelation. Recent issues of personality research, particularly under the aspect of “typus melancholicus” and “typus manicus” allow us to put these questions in a new way. We introduced two polar concepts, that of intolerance versus tolerance of ambiguity (of FrenkelBrunswik) and of “I” and “me” building up the self (G.H Mead). Deviant from obsessivecompulsive personality disorder we see the behavior of typus melancholicus mainly as hypernomic, compensating a primary lack of egoachievements. The preand intermorbid behavior of melancholics and of bipolars and manics, relate to each other in an inversive way of intolerance of ambiguity. Also the self in the melancholic episode, mainly oriented to the “me” (ObjectI) and that of mania to the “I” (SubjectI) shows the same inversive structure. This allows for a new understanding of the symptoms and phenomena in these states as the expression of a particular kind of depersonalisation in melancholia and of hyperpersonalisation in mania. Remarks on the psychotherapeutic guidance and rehabilitation are given.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This separation is also to be found in DSM-5-TM (2013) insofar as “bipolar and related disorders” and “depressive disorders” are separated. We refer to the recently published DSM-5-TM (2013) by the American Psychiatric Association, because it represents the newer version of a diagnostic and categorical glossary, compared to the international glossary of ICD-10-V(F) (2005). But it is planned to bring the awaited ICD-11 in line with DSM-5-TM (2013). In the following DSM-5 and JCD-10 relate to these editions of the manuals.

  2. 2.

    The German translator of Mead’s text interpreted the “me” as the “I” (which experiences itself as an object). For this reason, we speak of the “me” as an “object-I” and oppose it to the “I” in Mead’s understanding as a “subject-I.” According to Mead, the self is a reflexive and indicates that it can be both subject and object.

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  1. University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Alfred Kraus

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  1. Alfred Kraus
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  1. Department of Psycho,Humanis.&Terr. Sci, Uni"D.Portales",Chile,&Uni“G.D’Annunzio”, Chieti, Italy

    Giovanni Stanghellini

  2. Sapienza Univ&Crossing Dialogues Assoc., Rome, Italy

    Massimiliano Aragona

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Kraus, A. (2016). Melancholia from the Perspective of the Self. In: Stanghellini, G., Aragona, M. (eds) An Experiential Approach to Psychopathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29945-7_10

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