[Recited depression].

Abstract

Several subjects who tell their depression and play a part of it in front of the doctor without being really depressed are reported. Some of them try to hide the symptoms (irritability or erethism, ceremonials of obsessive neurosis, shunning of phobia) which, in their opinion, might be detrimental to their reputation. Others neglect to describe some of the symptoms of their polymorphous clinical picture only underlining the depressive signs. Some others play a part of depression because they have believed to recognize themselves in persons presented by mass media, because it seems to them a duty to show an adequate depression in case of mournful event, or because they "convert" their problem into a depression. Some others use depression as a blackmail, or to obtain an advantage from doctor's conviction about their illness. The reason for the high frequency of similar cases in the present time are examined: the scientific divulgation and the acceptance of depression by the modern society are among the most important ones. The peculiar semantic vicissitudes of the word depression are also reviewed. A widening of the boundaries of depression has contributed to an increase in the number of the cases. Finally, in addition to patients who are depressed without being aware of it, the authors focus the inverse possibility: patients who believed or try to make their doctor believe (playing the part of depression in front of them) that they are depressed.