Depression and Paradoxes

There are numerous ways and reasons to talk about paradoxes when depression is at issue. First, while depressivity is considered as a constitutive trait of human subjectivity (Klein, 1934 ; Winnicott, 1963 ; Fédida, 2001), and as such, as an ‘existential’ or an anthropological, universal capacity, pointing the heterogeneity of depressions in psychopathology has also become a commonplace. Second, a particular element of pathological depressions, i.e. suicide attempts, reveal a paradoxical ability to act in people which manifest a fundamental inability to do so (Tatossian, 1983, 1991). Third, when listening to, and interacting with depressed people, clinicians also face some paradoxes – such as the one in which we are when listening to deathly moves whereas the very mission of our profession is to take care of life – or are led to use some paradoxical methods, such as the one proposed by the upholders of the strategic approach in systemic psychology (Delroeux, 2008 ; Watzlawick et al., 1975) and according to which it can be useful to be more pessimistic than the depressed patient himself. In this contribution, we will explore how our clinical stance towards depressed people can be moved when depression is regarded in light of the notion of paradox.