[The inversion of mood (author's transl)]

It is for a good reason that the colloquium is entitled Affective disorders and not Depression: in reality there is a profound unity between elation and depression and we have to ask ourselves whether there may be inversion of mood in any case of elation and vice-versa. Mood inversion occurs in various conditions: depression sets in a previously elated person, finally overwhelmed by the consequences of his acts; or elation may occur as an over-compensation for the pain of loss. These two situations lead either to a paradoxical content of the patient's talk or to a metapsychological elaboration. Finally, the change may take place without there being a clear psychological formulation. The concomitants of these phenomena, involving the biological amines or the neurotransmitters, must be elucidated. Clinically, there are two types of problem: the problem of the premonitory signs of inversion of mood and the problem of attempting to prevent it.