[A rare and little-known method of elaborating the loss of the object in melancholia].
The author presents a fully detailed report of the observation of two economically secure young women who were caught shop-lifting in a large department store; one woman was apprehended while suffering from depression, the other was caught just prior to the onset of a depressive episode. It is hoped that the details referred here may contribute to the insufficient data published on this subject up to the present. It is important to note that the thefts committed by these patients show the typical characteristics of "impulsive behavior". Furthermore, the impulse to steal may appear in various psychiatric conditions. Therefore, the author first considered the hypothesis that these thefts may have been computed during an acute dysthymic psychosis. Epilepsy was ruled out in both cases based on anamnestic data, electroencephalographic findings and, even after the administration of a pharmacological trigger, no epileptic symptoms appeared. These negative results prompted the author to propose a psychosemeiogenetic rapport between the depressive conditions and the thefts. Considering basic information regarding the psychodynamic of impulsive behavior in general, and that manifested in the course of melancholia in particular, the author confronts the problem of the psychosemeiogenesis of the impulsive to steal in the depressed patient. In order to understand this problem, the author proposes several interpretative hypotheses (equivalence of suicide or "parasuicide" according to Deshaies; attempt to give a concrete reason for the "feeling of guilt"; conduct to symbolically compensate the loss of the "object"). Following an in-depth, critical discussion, the author concludes that the "parasuicide" hypothesis is most accurate in the case of the first patient, whereas "compensation" more adequately explains the second. In conclusion, the interest that these cases present in the forensic medical sphere is also brought to light.
Mapelli
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Istituto di Clinica delle Malattie Nervose e Mentali, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Italie.
D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D007174:Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009769:Object Attachment; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation
Sur une rare et peu connue modalité d'élaboration de la perte de l'Objet dans la mélancolie.