Depressive anxiety is a term developed in relation to the depressive position by Melanie Klein, building on Freud's seminal article on object relations of 1917, 'Mourning and Melancholia'.Neville Symington, Narcissism (1993) p. xi Depressive anxiety revolved around a felt state of inner danger produced by the fear of having harmed good internal objectsDanielle Quinodoz, Emotional Vertigo (2002) p. 148 - as opposed to the persecutory fear of ego annihilation more typical of paranoid anxiety.
It may be distinguished from a depressive mood, which need not necessarily be tinged with anxiety.
Stages Depressive anxiety can be aroused at every developmental stage, from weaning through to the loss of familial dependence of adolescence or of one's youth in later life.Hanna Segal, Klein (1979) p. 135 Continual oscillation between paranoid and depressive anxieties can create a sense of psychic imprisonment;Danielle Quinodoz, Emotional Vertigo (2002) p. 149 while conversely a lasting shift from the former to the latter can be seen as one of the marks of a successful analytic process.A. Bateman/J. Holmes, Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1999) p. 179
Defences Defences against depressive anxiety include projective identification, whereby the anxieties are denied in oneself and placed in another person;Hanna Segal, Introduction to the Work of Melanie Klein (1964) p. 64 a manic denial of the reality of an inner world at all;Hanna Segal, Klein (1979) p. 81 or a psychic retreat into a reduced and apathetic state of diminished feelings.
Didier Anzieu saw Freud's theoretical construction of psychoanalysis as a compulsive intellectualized defence against depressive anxiety.Didier Anziou, Freud's Self-Analysis (1986) p. 182 and p. 581
See also
Paranoia Querulant Panic attack Delusional disorder Persecutory delusion Paranoid personality disorder Borderline personality disorder
References
Further reading Klein, Mélanie (1946). "Notes on some schizoid mechanisms". Envy and gratitude and other works 1946–1963. Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis (published 1975). . Klein, Mélanie; Riviere, Joan (1964) "Love, guilt, and reparation" in link Love, Hate, and Reparation New York, NY: Norton Grotstein, James S. (1981). Splitting and projective identification. New York, NY: Jason Aronson. . Ogden, Thomas H. (1989). The primitive edge of experience. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson. .. Klein, Mélanie (1952). "Some theoretical conclusions regarding the emotional life of the infant". Envy and gratitude and other works 1946–1963. Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis (published 1975). . Segal, H. (1981). The work of Hanna Segal: A Kleinian approach to clinical practice. New York, NY: Jason Aronson. . John Steiner, in Robin Anderson ed., Clinical Lectures on Klein and Bion (London 1992) p. 46-58
External links Klein Trust (with extensive resources) Kleinian Studies Ejournal (with numerous detailed links)