EPA-1246 – Typus Melancholicus: From Tellenbach to The Nowadays

Abstract

The concept of Typus Melancholicus (TM) has been proposed by German psychiatrist Hubertus Tellenbach (1914–1994) in 1960 to describe the pre-morbid and inter-morbid personality of endogenous or melancholic depression.

This entity has been traced through the study of 119 melancholic's patients, stayed at the University Hospital of Heidelberg, which showed distinctive personality traits: the order attachment, strong moral conscience, intolerance ambiguity and hypernomie-heteronomy.

Tellenbach uses a typological and phenomenological approach allows the description of styles, ways of being and becoming ill, with a vulnerability to specific situations (moving, pregnancy, career change).

Melancholy would settle after the meeting between the TM with a particular vulnerable situation. This clearly calls into question the classical idea that sees Kraepelinienne endogenous depression as a disease determined by heredity and lack of stressors.

We propose a review of Tellenbach's concept at the present day.