“After the house burned down: A search for the meaning of depression”
This article intends to analyse depression through the concepts of Analytical Psychology and seek if depression has a meaning in the person who suffers from it. According to the World Health Organization, 50 million people suffer from depression in the world and until 2020 350 million will suffer from it. Analytical Psychology uses the psyche energy concept to describe depressions. The psyche energy moves between the conscious and unconscious. Depression is when the psyche energy of the individual is found in the unconscious. This means that energy activates the content that is in the unconscious obliging the person to deal with those issues. Depression is a normal function of the psyche, but it can become pathological when depression lasts more time and the person does not deal with her/his inner matters. Sometimes the suicidal thoughts may be related to the desire for a change, but the depressive person often does not see a way out. Therefore the idea of death seems the only way out of the suffering. The normal function of depression is to help the person be in touch with her/his inner world and renovate what needs to be changed. Therefore depression itself may result in transformation, but for it to achieve its goal it depends on the structure of the Ego.