This paper discusses the problem of defining melancholia, based on Freud’s “Mourning and melancholia” (1917). An analysis of Freud’s conception leads the reader to an examination of the main texts where this concept is formulated as a narcissistic neurosis caused by a return of the Oedipal conflict and involving phantasies of parricide and incest caused by an object loss that has been removed from consciousness.
melancholy; depression; narcissism; parricide