Typus melancholicus as endophenotype of melancholic depression

Abstract

The concept of Typus Melancholicus has been proposed by German psychiatrist Hubertus Tellenbach (1914-1994) in 1960to
describe thepre-morbid personality of endogenous or melancholic depression. Thisentity shows distinctive personalitytraits: the order attachment, strong moral conscience, intolerance ambiguity and hypernomia-heteronomy. Tellenbach uses atypological and phenomenological approach allows the descriptionof 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 Typus Melancholicus with a particular vulnerable situation. This clearly calls into question the classical idea that sees Kraepelinienne endogenous depression as a diseasede termined by heredity and lack of stressors. We propose to describe Tellenbach’s concept, and to summarize the more recent empirical researches that valid the Typus Melancholicus as a phenotype for Melancholia.