man, rightly or wrongly, accepts certain moral standards or value-imperatives as essential criteria of his personal
worth—and yet, in some crucial respect, feels unable to comply with them; or suppose he desires something
desperately which he regards as immoral and, therefore, impossible to assert or pursue. The conflict is repressed.
Since it is repressed, it cannot be resolved; he can either recheck his standards and discover whether he has made an
error—nor can he form any rational policy in regard to the failure(s) or action(s) or desire(s) that is in conflict with
his self-expectations.
He is left with the oppressive, enervating sense of some nameless, unalterable, irremediable burden, which he is
sentenced to carry and live with to the end of his days. He has lost or minimized his anxiety. He may be
comparatively free of conscious guilt. But what he experiences, instead, is despair—an exhausting despair that
paralyzes the will to act.
He has relinquished the possibility of achieving self-esteem or happiness. But these are a man's motive power.
If, in the context of psychotherapy, the basic question to ask in regard to a patient's anxiety is: "What is your
crime?"—the basic question to ask in regard to a patient's depression, is often: "What do you desire that you
consider immoral and unattainable?"
To regain his mental health, the depressed person must be willing to experience anxiety—must be willing to
relinquish the "comfort" of despair and to confront his anxiety-provoking conflicts, in order to resolve them and
move forward.
Consider the situation of a man lost in some vast, icy, northern terrain, with snow stretching desolately and
endlessly around him. He knows that there is a camp somewhere far ahead and he must reach it, that his life
depends on reaching it. But he is exhausted and bitterly cold, and his passionate desire is only to lie down and rest.
Yet if he does, he knows that he will fall asleep and die. To move is torture; but stillness is the end of hope.
The person suspended between anxiety and depression is like that man. He must resist the illusory comfort of
despair and be willing to endure anxiety, to drive himself forward, to keep searching and moving, in order to reach
safety, efficacy, and health.
Anxiety is still a sign of life—of conflict and struggle—therefore, of possible victory. But depression is resignation
to defeat.