Heaven and Hell: The Psychology of the Emotions

by Neel Burton

People in the depressive position are often stigmatized as ‘failures’ or ‘losers’. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. If these people are in the depressive position, it is most probably because they have tried too hard and taken on too much, so hard and so much that they have made themselves ‘ill with depression’. That is to say, if these people are in the depressive position, it is because their world was not good enough for them. They wanted more, they wanted better, and they wanted different, not just for themselves but for all those around them. So, if they are failures or losers, this is only because they set the bar far too high. They could have swept everything under the carpet and pretended, as many people do, that all is for the best in the best of possible worlds. But unlike many people, they had the honesty and the strength to admit that something was amiss, that something was not quite right. So rather than being failures or losers, they are all the opposite: they are ambitious, they are truthful, and they are courageous. And that is precisely why they got ‘ill’.