Depressive affect and its ideational content: a case study of dissatisfaction

Chronic dissatisfaction in pathological compromise formation may be a distorted derivative of depressive affect. Although rationalized in reacting to external circumstances, it is immediately the result of the disparity between goal and accomplishment. Ultimately it is the affective expression of the conviction of one's irreparable castrated condition that precludes the attainment of an ego ideal. The case presented illustrates that the patient's dissatisfaction with his circumstances was a projection of the unacceptable castrative condition he unconsciously perceived in himself and had to reject.