Breakdown of Intimacy. Insights into the world of a depressive lock-in

ABSTRACT

Breakdowns are states in which the continuity of being was destroyed. A breakdown has happened but could not be experienced. It is not possible to observe these states because they are beyond our intuition. We have to paraphrase them as ‘shadow’, ‘non-existence’, or ‘black hole’. In these dynamics, the development of a Super-Ego precedes the development of the ego. Under such a Super-Ego, the unthinkable turns into omniscience – no intimacy is left.

This process is demonstrated using the example of a treatment in which a patient regresses into a severe autistoid depression (major depression). In a depressive lock-in, all mental life collapsed and intrapsychic and interpsychic communication was not possible, neither of the depression nor of the panic. The ‘me’ is threatened with dissolution, the ‘not-me’ is flattened into a two-dimensional non-existence. For the analyst, it is nearly impossible to understand anything, to build up any empathy, i.e., to grasp the depression intuitively. Finally, intimacy gets lost – until it is possible to communicate this agony (e.g., by projective identification).

KEYWORDS:

• Major depression
• autistoid
• Super-Ego
• breakdown
• intimacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Parts of the clinical material first appeared in the Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse Bd. 73, 2016. My thanks to the publisher, Frommann-Holzboog, for kindly permitting the copyright release.

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Bernd Nissen

Dr. Bernd Nissen is a Psychoanalyst (DPV/IPA) in Berlin. He is also a training analyst. He is the editor for several books and co-editor of the “Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse”. Publications on pathological organisations, autistoid dynamics, hypochondria, perversion and theory of science.