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Draft G. Melancholia' , \('Itation 98 Decemberry,r$g4 Draft G 99 cordial greetings to you and your dearwife; let me hear from you (D) The typical and extreme form of melancholia seems to be the very soon. periodic or cyclic hereditary form. Your Sigm.Fr. II I. Freud writes in the margin, next to this sentence, the word,,abstinent.,, In order to make anything of this material/ one needs some secure points of departure. These seem to be provided by the following considerations: (a) The affect corresponding to melancholia is that of mourning Decemberry,tSg4 - that is, longing for something lost. Thus in melancholia it must be a question of a loss - that is, a loss in rnstin ctual life. IX., Berggasse19 Dear Wilhelm, (b)The neurosis concerned with eating, parallel to melancholia, is anorexia. The famous anorexia nervosa of young girls seems to me I am not writing you much anymore becauseI hope to seeyou here (on careful observation) to be a melancholia where sexuality is un- very shortly.Your manuscript is at paschkis,;,I dld not daretrr tleveloped. The patient asserted that she had not eaten, simply be- remove the business"about labor pains. you can still do it here. cause she had no appetite, and for no reason. Loss of appetite I hope you will havesome good dayshere and we a few beautiful other hours. - in sexual terms, loss of libido. Cordial greetingsfrom us to you both. It would not be so bad, therefore, to start from the idea: melan- , holia consists in mourning over the loss of libido. Your It remains to be seen whether this formula explains the occur- Sigm. rcnce and characteristics of melancholia. This will be discussed on I' Heinrich Paschkis (r8+q- r Irc I9z3) was editor of the Wiener Hinische Rund.schatt basis of the schematic diagram of sexuality. 2. Or "case history.// III I shall now discuss, on the basis of the schematic diagram of ,t rrrality, which I have often used, the conditions under which the 1'.'vchicsexual group (ps.S.l suffers a loss in the amount of its Draft G. Melancholia' , \('itation. There are two possible cases: (r) if the production of ,,rrrrrtic sexual excitation (s.S) sinks or ceases;(z) if the sexual r( I rrsion is diverted from the ps. S. The first case,in whichthepro- ,lrrr t ion of s. S.ceases, is probably what is characteristic of.genuine' The facts on hand seem to be as follows: ., \'('(a melancholia proper, which recurs periodically, or of cyclic (A) There are striking connections between melancholia ancl Iscx rrr.lrrncholia,in which periods of increaseand cessationof produc- uall anesthesia. This is borne our (r) by the finding that in ,o ,rrr,,, r,rn :rltrrrnate; it can further be assumed that excessive mas- melancholics there has been a long'previous history of anesthesi;r, r,rrlr;rtion-which accrtrding to the theory leads to too great an (z) bv the observation that everything that provokes anesthesir crr ,rrrl,;rtlingof E. (thc end organ)3and thus to a low level of stimulus in courages the development of melancholia, (3)by the existencc .l .r I t'xcessivcrnasturbation extends to the production of s. S. and type of woman/.very needy psychically, ir-whom longing c,:rsrlv r rrrrr',s:rborrt rr lesting rcduction in the s. S., thus a weakening changesinto melancholia and who is anesthctic. t tlrt' l) S.oThis is ncurrrsthcnic rnelancholia.The [second]case, in Melancholia {B) develops as an intcnsificrrti.n of ncurrrstht.rrr.r , lrr, lr \('xu:tl tcrr.sionis tlivcrtccl f nrm the p. S.,while the production through masturbation. | \ rs not tlirnirrislrctl, l)rcsupposcsthat the s. S. is employed (C) Melancholia occurs typicellv irr t'rrrlrpr;rrrrrr witlr st,vc,r-(.irrx I , rr lrt'rt' rtt tlrt'lroturtlrtrv r)tltc sotnutic anclthepsychicl. iety. lbctwce i lrr, llo\\'( \'( 1, rs llrt'l)r('(orrtlitiott ol rlnxictv; luttl :tccortlingly this IOO Draft G Draft G coincideswith the caseof anxiety melancholia,a mixed form com- Anesthesiaalways consists, to be sure/in the omissionof V. [feel- bining anxiety neurosisand melancholia. ings of pleasurel,which ought to be conductedinto the ps. S. after In this discussion,therefore/ the three forms of melancholia, the reflexaction that unloadsthe end organ.The feeling of pleasure which must in fact be distinguished,are explained. is measuredby the amount of unloading. (alThe E. is not sufficientlyloaded; hence the dischargeat coitus IV is slight and the V. very small: the caseof frigidity. How does it come about that anesthesia plays this role in melan- (b)The pathway from sensationto the reflexaction is damaged,so cholia? that the action is not sufficiently strong. Then the unloading and According to the schematic diagram [Fig. r], there are the follow- the V. are alsoslight: the caseof masturbatoryanesthesia, the anes- ing kinds of anesthesia. thesiaof coitus interruptus,and so on. (c) Everything below is in order; only V. is not admitted to the ps. S. because it is linked with other factors (with disgust- Boundary Ego defense):this is hystericalanesthesia, which is entirely analogousto Pych 0roup..:i....... hystericalanorexia (disgust). '"Pect fxternal world To what extent, then, doesanesthesia facilitate melancholia? Sexualobject In case(al , of frigidity, anesthesiais not the causeof melancholia but a sign of a predispositionto it. This tallies with Fact (A)(r) E mentioned at the beginning. In other casesthe anesthesiais the rl .s .a [, causeof the melancholia,because the ps. S. is strengthenedby the ,' q, 3 arrival of V. and weakened by its omission. (Basedon general v tr< theoriesof the binding of excitationin memory.)Fact (n)(z) is thus j taken into account. Somat-psychBoundery Accordingly, it is possibleto be anestheticwithout being melan- s cholic,because - .S l\ t\ Melancholiais relatedto the omissionof s. S. t) t l,; Anesthesiais relatedto the omissionof V., but anesthesiais a R sign of or a preparationfor melancholia,since the p. S. is asmuch gs weakenedby the omissionof V. asby the omissionof s. S. \ r t centft Seruololfect in position v { irol /awurable We must considerwhy anesthesiais so predominantly a charac- tcristic of women. This arises from the passive role played by women.An anestheticman will sooncease to undertakeany coitus; rr woman is not asked. She becomes anestheticmore easily be- clluse- (r) Her entire upbringing works in the direction of not awakening s S., but of changing all excitations which could have that effect Ternina! nrto psychic stirnuli - that is, of directing the dotted line [in the tf sehcrnatic cliagrarn,Fig. rl from the sexual object entirely into the ^t^f. ps S. This is ncccssary bccausc if there were a vigorous s. S., the ps S. worrltl soon rrc(lr.lircsuch strcngth intcrmittently that, as in ( r tlrt'crlsc of rttc'rr,it worrltl brirrg tlte scxurrlobjcct into a favorable Figure i Schematic [)irrgranr of scxtrrtl itv l l rr t lrt. r )n'1ul;rl ;rll t ltt',rrr )\\'\ .lr I'ositiott lrv nl(';nrsof ;t sPct'ilicrr':tct iorr. lJrrtirr tlrc cltscof worncn, it drawn itr rcd, exct' ltt tlrc tlottr.'rl r)t)('rll tltt't'xll('tll(' l('ll I IO2 Draft G Draft G ro3 is required that the arc of specificreaction not take place;instead, permanentspecific actions are required of them, *hi"h entice thc. male into the specific action. Thus sexualtension is kept low, its accessto the ps. S. so-far aspossiblecut off, and the i"Jlp.rrsabie r{Y strengthof the.ps.s. ' ,ni"i defray.d ir, another way.If, now, tt . p-r.s. g.,, ,;i;f l'ftig into a stateof longing, then, in view of the io* lerrel[of tension]in the E.,that stateiseaslly transform.a i"to The ps.S. in itself is capable of little resistance.This is-.tancholia. the juvenile, immarurc type of_libido, and the demanding, *o-"n menrionerl rb,oy:_LFact (A)(3)l merely continuJ'this".r.rrh"ii. ryp..- women , lz) [becomeanesthetic more.nrity than men do] because ,h."y so often approach the sexualr"t 1-rrivl *i,rro"t love - that is, with lesss. s. and tension in the E. In th^icase they are-frigid anrl {' *u remain so. .**,.6 The low level of tension in the E. seemsto contain the mai' dispositionto melancholia. In individuals of this kind everyneuro sis easilytakes on a melancholicstamp. Thus, whereaspor..ri irrai viduals-easily . ,.'i.n-"' acquire anxiety neuroses,impotent ones incline ; *./,u*t f Nt ;,/:* melancholia. t. I VI fir I How, then, can the effects . of melancholia be explained? The bcsr descripti on: psychic inhibition with instinctual impoverishme rtt and pain concerning it. Ps..I Figure 4 ( )nc can imagine that, if the ps. s. meets with a very great loss in rlrt'rrrrount of its excitation, there may come about an in-d_rawing, r' lt were, into the psychic sphere, which produces an effect of rr(lr()rl Llpon thc edjoir-ringamounts of excitation. The associated rr rlr()ncsrlrrust givc Fi.qrlrr trp tlrcir cxcitation, which produces pain[Fig. 3 ' I lrc rttlcotrplittgttI rrssocirrtionsis alwrys painful; there setsin, as rlrrrttglr tltrottglt rnr itttt'rrrttl ltt,tttorrltu.gt:,:rn irn;ltlvcrishrnent in rt [:tr,.tttt') rt;ltrolr{irr tlrt, llt't.stort.ol itl wlrit.lr rrr:rkr,sitscllkn()wn inthc ' 'tlrt I rn\l lll( l rr;rl ,ll ll't's ;rrrtl lrrrrtl l()rls As ;rrr rrrlrilritiorr, llris in LO4 Draft G Draft G ro5 ,' tend to the psychic sexual group. The manifestations are in reality ll so similar that many casesmust be sorted out very carefully. [Editor's Note: Included in the envelope that contained Draft G was another drawing by Freud, which he titled "Normalschema.,, It was not included in the original German or English editions, proba- /;-* t bly because it is so difficult to understand.
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