Why Freud's theory of melancholia is all wrong

A/Prof Russell Grigg (Deakin University )

I begin by discussing the flaws in Freud’s analysis of mourning. I then argue that Freud’s comparison of mourning and melancholia is misleading. I point out that, as Freud himself recognises, the attack upon the self in melancholia is too devastating for it to be fully understood as internalised aggression against the object, and so we need some other explanation of the origins of melancholia. I argue that the melancholic suffers from the invasive presence of an object and not, as Freud suggests, from an inability to accept the loss of an object.

Russell Grigg teaches philosophy and psychoanalytic studies at Deakin University. He also practices psychoanalysis in Melbourne. As a member of the French psychoanalytic school, Ecole de la Cause freudienne, since its inception he has been involved in the development of Lacanian psychoanalysis in France and internationally. Russell Grigg has been closely involved in the translation of Lacan into English, having translated Lacan’s seminars The Psychoses and The Other Side of Psychoanalysis and having collaborated on the first complete translation of Lacan’s Ecrits. His publications have explored issues in Lacanian psychoanalysis that have ranged over questions of language, and ethics and psychoanalysis. He has also published on clinical issues concerning psychosis and neurosis. His current research is on melancholia.