Brief psychoanalytic psychotherapy of nonpsychotic depression

Brief psychoanalytic psychotherapy of depression must be predicated upon a clear conceptualization of the 10 main factors which play the dominant role in all depressions, though in differing rank order for each depression, namely: problems of self-esteem, a severe superego, aggression manifesting itself mostly as intra-aggression, a feeling of loss, a sense of disappointment, feelings of deception, orality and stimulus hunger, dependence on narcissistic nutrients, the use of denial as the outstanding defense mechanism, and disturbances in object relations. Areas of intervention and methods of intervention must be very clearly formulated. By vigorously working through the relevant factors with the appropriate methods of intervention, depression, in my experience, lends itself very well to brief psychotherapy most of the time.