[Postpartum depression and the illusion of symbiosis]

Post-partum depression is an important clinical phenomenon that has been neglected in psychoanalytic research. The author's approach to the problem proceeds on the basis of the postulation of a cross-generational constellation, a specific, pathological relation between the mother and the daughter who has herself become a mother. This relation is termed the "illusion of symbiosis". The central factor here is the mother's fantasy that her baby can fulfill for her all the desires that she herself was denied in childhood by her own mother. In order to sustain this illusion of symbiosis, frustration and anger are split off and frequently projected onto the father, who thus becomes the object of those hostile fantasies. To elucidate this constellation, Halberstadt-Freud draws upon a highly suggestive and impressive case history.