LET ME GO: Depression and suicidal fantasies in children¹

Abstract

The paper explores the phenomenology of major depression and suicidal ideation in children, offering a brief overview of relevant findings in psychiatry, with particular reference to statistical evidence, and outlining psychoanalytic models, including Jungian as well as the post‐Kleinian and Bionian vertices. Bowlby's seminal contribution to the understanding of mourning processes in relation to Freud's theory is also considered. The case of an eight‐year‐old boy is examined, with particular attention to a series of drawings that the patient produced over the two years of his psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The therapy was interrupted abruptly by his parents.

Jungian Analysis of the Chinese Mythological Image of Sun Wukong

“…If his needs weren’t met immediately, he would cry out loudly and react emotionally. Many children lack the capacity to express their emotions verbally and thus tend to present with somatic symptoms and complaints of not feeling well, which in turn is seen by pediatricians as evidence of physical illness (Bisagni, 2022). His teacher in kindergarten reflected that he was inattentive, overactive and had a poor ability to follow rules.…”