Depression, cure, and mental health: Analysis of the clinical guidelines for depression (MINSAL) based on Kleinian psychoanalysis.

Abstract

Mental health practices are determined by the hegemonic discourses of each era, which influence conceptions of treatment and cure. This article critically analyzes the clinical guidelines for depression issued by the Chilean Ministry of Health (MINSAL), contrasting their foundations with those of the Kleinian psychoanalytic perspective. Through a theoretical discussion, the notions of mental health, cure, and treatment of both approaches are examined.  Thus, as the clinical guidelines are part of a biomedical, atheoretical model that promotes psychoeducational interventions, it is argued that this approach would not allow for the development of the depressive position, a fundamental process for working through the anxieties of depressive disorder and facilitating the integration of the patient's dissociated objects and aspects. Therefore, the importance of taking a comprehensive view of depression is proposed, and that psychotherapeutic treatments allow for a meaningful bond with a therapist in order to achieve an analysis of transference.