Freud and his followers describe the nature (psychodynamics) of melancholy as follows (according to M.M. Reshetnikov, the work “Psychodynamics and Psychotherapy of Depression”)
When the object is lost (or relations with it have collapsed), but the subject cannot tear his attachment (libido energy) from him, this energy is directed to the Self, which as a result, as it were, splits, and on the other hand, is transformed, becoming identified with the lost object. . Thus, the loss of the object turns into the loss of the I. As a result of the loss of the object, as it were, the libido does not shift from this object to another, but «retreats into the I.»
At the same time, all life flows seem to close in the relationship between the Self and the “surrogate” object, or, to be more precise, between the fragment of the Self belonging to the personality and the fragment of the Self identified with the object. All energy is concentrated inside, «isolating» from external activity. But since there is a lot of this energy, it seeks a way out, and finds it, transforming into endless mental pain (pain is in its original sound, existing regardless of anything, just like light, matter, etc.).
The second component of Freud’s hypothesis comes from the emergence of powerful aggressive feelings directed at an object that did not live up to expectations. But — since the latter remains the object of attachment, these feelings are directed not to the object, but again to the I, which (under the influence of these powerful feelings) splits. And we again come to the same conclusion: the loss of the object turns into the loss of the Self. At the same time, the Super-ego (the instance of conscience) inflicts the most severe and uncompromising “judgment” on one’s own Self, as on this object that did not live up to expectations.
Freud writes: “… The concentration of the melancholic on his object suffered a twofold fate: partly it regressed to identification, another part of it, under the influence of an ambivalent conflict, returned to a level of sadism close to it … If love for an object that cannot stop, then the object itself will leave found salvation in narcissistic identification, then hatred is revealed in relation to this ersatz object — it is revealed in the fact that he is scolded, humiliated, forced to suffer and find sadistic satisfaction in this suffering.
Almost always in the clinical picture there is another very important phenomenon: the thought of the impossibility of loss becomes more significant and real than whether (and — no matter how long ago) this loss occurred or not, or there is only a threat that it will happen. In this case, it is only important that there was and is a strong fixation on the object of love and affection, and also that this love and affection has never been satisfied (or even if there is only a threat to their satisfaction).
The psychodynamic approach proceeds from the fact that the choice of this object (at one time) was most likely carried out on a narcissistic basis, and therefore identification with this object can be the same, that is, narcissistic identification, but in a “perverted” form: if the object left me, it is because «I am too bad, disgusting or even disgusting.» With such narcissistic identification, it is possible to regress even to pre-object relationships, which Freud figuratively defined as «a hole in the psyche.»