Themes of endogenous and nonendogenous depressions

In a study of 29 endogenous and 24 nonendogenous depressive patients, the two diagnostic groups showed significant differences in the thematic content of their depressions. We found no specific themes characteristic of endogenous depression and - in contrast to the nonendogenous group - relatively little linkage of the depressive mood to the endogenous patients' problems. The nonendogenous patients, however, could be clearly identified by the contents of their depression, which revolved around the patients' ambivalent emotional involvement with the environment in general, and their partners in particular. Endogenous and nonendogenous patients differed in degree of inner involvement with the people around them, and this factor, in accord with psychoanalytic experience, proved to be of decisive importance in differentiating between the two groups.