This paper joins in the psychoanalytic discussion of depression from the perspective of Fairbairn’s object relations theory, something Fairbairn did not himself undertake. It aligns with Rubens’ view that an extension of Fairbairn’s theory beyond Fairbairn’s original theory to understand depression is not only advantageous but also necessary. Through a revisit of the significant divergences between the classical theory and the relational theory, it contextualises the potential of a Fairbairnian framework of depression as distinctive from the classical propositions. This paper complicates psychoanalytic knowledge of the nature of depression in response to the relational turn, concluding that, framed in Fairbairn’s system, depression should be understood as an actively organised psychic manoeuvre to defend against changes to the endopsychic structure, and most importantly, against the disintegration of a particular sense of self sponsored by internal object relationships.

中文翻译：

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在费尔贝恩的客体关系理论中重新考虑抑郁症

本文从费尔贝恩的客体关系理论的角度加入了对抑郁症的精神分析讨论，这是费尔贝恩本人没有进行的。它与鲁本斯的观点一致，即在费尔贝恩的原始理论之外扩展费尔贝恩的理论来理解抑郁症不仅是有利的，而且是必要的。通过重新审视经典理论和关系理论之间的重大分歧，它将费尔贝恩抑郁症框架的潜力与古典命题区别开来。这篇论文使关于抑郁本质的精神分析知识复杂化，以应对关系转向，得出的结论是，在费尔贝恩的系统中，