What is anaclitic depression?

Question

I looked it up, but I'm not sure if I'm understanding it correctly. Your take on this would be appreciated. Thanks!!

Answer 1

I'm not surprised that you're not sure of what it is. I used to work as a RN in psychiatry for 22 years and I had trouble too! I haven't worked for 7 years but I never heard of the word.

I did a Yahoo search and got different definitions at different websites. The Medical Dictionary said it is a form of depression that occures mostly in infants when they are removed from their mothers or primary caregivers.

Another site said that some researchers had divided depression into 2 subtypes: Anaclitic and Introjective. They said that both types were caused caused by "unsucessful attachment" (I assume of child to parents or caregiver).

They differentiated between anaclitic and introjective by these symptoms. People with anaclitic depression had interpersonal (relationship) issues. They felt lonely, weak, and had abandonment fears.

People with the introjective type had achievement concerns. They were self critical and feel like they are a failure. Both types involve perfectionism.

So, there is no agreement on what anaclitic depression is. The medical dictionary says it occurs in infancy due to the actual loss of parents. 2 other websites say that it occurs in adulthood from "unsucessful attachment" to parents or primary caregiver.

I hope you are not trying to diagnose yourself. My first college psych course was "Abnormal Psychology". The professor told us at the beginning of the course that with each description of the abnormality, that we would see that symptom in ourselves. He said that we all have all of the symptoms to some degree.

He said the issue was how severe the symptom is and whether it causes a problem in our lives. And if it causes a problem, is it a minor problem that we can live with or does it cause a major problem so that we need to get professional help to overcome the problem.

Thank you for this interesting question that caused me to learn something new.

Answer 2

Anaclitic Depression: This is a type of depression that occurs primarily in infants who have been separated from or lost their mothers or primary caretakers. If a child suffers from anaclitic depression there is a high risk of serious developmental problems both intellectually and physically. Although anaclitic depression has been reserved almost exclusively for infants, psychologists have found it in adults and even monkeys.