Depression, The Shadow of Desire

What we call depression is interpreted by the author as a historical-anthropological transformation of what once was called melancholia. Thus, it is here considered as culturally-bound syndrome whose roots are in the failure of the revolution against the breakdown of the Father figure, responsible for the catastrophes of the first half of the 20th century. The attempt to overcome the “Freudian” castrating Super-Egoic Father, the post-modern subject regressed towards the Great Mother. In so doing it became the tragic, narcissistic subject which, bound to post-capitalistic consumerism, feels the need to be constantly orally nourished and admired. This state of affairs has a profound anomic nature, as it promotes meaningless desires and, therefore, depression. Hence, the contemporary subject has lost, if not any “object”, but the progressive sense of ethical values that are not in the Great Mother’s domain, but in the Father’s domain.