title: On repetition. Its relationship to the depressive position.
abstract: Thinking is painful as it progresses. Something of what is being achieved has to be left behind. The loss is being compensated by repetition in variations, as if the unconscious tries to restore what has been left behind. Looking back on the steps of thinking, one gains a feeling of security in one's conclusions if these steps are restored.
mesh_terms: D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004325:Dreams; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D009770:Obsessive Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D013060:Speech; D013850:Thinking; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology