Peine, douleur et dépression

Kierkegaard contrasts pain, which proceeds from a fate beyond individuals, with suffering which is internalized within a subjective memory. This analysis can be useful to tackle depression with the cognitive theory of representation. We outline a framework to construct a representational space as a subjective universe defined from memory. Suffering can be linked to a splitting of the representational space and retardation corresponds to a retraction of this space into what can be described as a well. Beyond an apparent accident, the depressive retraction can only be explained as a wound of a founding area of representational space, involving an original pain. Several degrees of melancholy can be defined within this conceptual framework. We underline the hazards of extracting the original pain when it unifies the whole representational space.