Melancholia as a desynchronization: Towards a psychopathology of interpersonal time

Starting from psychopathological analyses of lived time in melancholia, the paper first examines the continuous processes of synchronization effective in biological as well as social life. These processes enable the individua l to compensate for states of shortage, to adapt to changed circumstances, finish with past events and reconnect with the present. Examples of such re synchronizing processes are regeneration, sleep, dreaming, forgetting, remo rse or grief, Melancholia is then interpreted as the result of a desynchron ization, i.e. an uncoupling in the temporal relation of organism and enviro nment, or of individual and society. With the processes of resynchronizatio n failing, the person falls out of common environmental time. This concepti on allows a parallel to be drawn between chronobiological and psychosocial results of research. Moreover, it offers the possibility to understand not only the psychopathology, but also the triggering of melancholic episodes o n the basis of a disturbance of time. Consequences for a 'resynchronizing t herapy' are outlined. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.