Images on the void: An enquiry into the nature of depression through reflections on five commonly presented images

Abstract

This paper concerns five images of: (1) Blackness, the void; (2) Black hole, vortex spiral; (3) Desert, barren landscape; (4) Prison, cell, pit or well; (5) The crux, divide, dilemma at heart. These images are explored with reference to clinical material and of the theories of Freud, Kristeva, and Kalsched. Particular reference is given to Freud, Mourning and Melancholia (1917), Kristeva, Black Sun, Depression and Melancholia (1989), and Kalsched, The Inner World of Trauma—Archetypal Defenses of the Personal Spirit (1996). The paper is intended as an aid to practitioners working with people with chronic depression and other diagnoses with depression as an important factor in the interaction. The author believes it is the therapist's role to firstly give value to the patient's expression, and secondly to perceive and enter into a compressed inner dialogue at the heart of depression.