Relationship of Separation to Depression

There is considerable clinical evidence that psychological factors are of great importance in the precipitation and development of depression. Mendelson¹has pointed out that an extensive body of literature exists with an impressive consensus that in even the most endogenous depressions, emotional factors play a highly significant etiologic role. In the majority of psychological theories concerned with depression, the role of emotional trauma in early life has been stressed. Clinical observations suggest that of all the possible early traumatic experiences, separation in childhood from important persons, and especially parents, plays an important and critical role in depression. Although there exists an overwhelming agreement in the literature²⁻⁶that severe early deprivation results in pathological personality development, no impressive correlation had been reported until recently between early separation and adult depressive reactions. A significant relationship between parental loss in childhood and adult depression was