[Anaclitism, the abandonment syndrome and essential depression]

Following the recall of certain basic notions such as anaclitic depression, "abandonic syndrome" and "essential depression", the authors concentrate their interest on the clinical case of an adolescent girl both asthmatic and "abandonic"; the deprivation syndrome is discussed as a consequence of abandonment when the substitutive figure is deficient; the relationship between psychosomatic disorder and perturbations of the mother-child relationship is examined. A certain correlation between anaclitic depression in the infant and "essential depression" in adult life is suggested in the light of a re-enactment of the initial psychosomatic unit.