When the depressive psychosis has become manifest, its cardinal feature seems to be a mental inhibition which renders a rapport between the patient and the external world more difficult.
Psychoanalytic investigation has shown that in mental patients excessive affection often turns to violent hostility.
Even in my first analysis of a depressive psychosis, I was immediately struck by its structural similarity with obsessional neurosis.
In neurotics, worm phobias are usually found as well as snake phobias.
Whereas the melancholic exhibits a state of general inhibition, in the manic patient even normal inhibitions of the instincts are partly or wholly abolished.
Both dreams and neurotic dream-states have as their function the avoidance of displeasure, but the dream-states also serve to provide a positive pleasure gain.
