The book by the outstanding French psychoanalyst, philosopher and linguist Y. Kristeva is dedicated to the theoretical and clinical analysis of depression and melancholy. Along with the main line of psychoanalytic research, she manages to link into a holistic conceptual unity historical and philosophical analysis, symbolic, mystical and religious allegories, a detailed analysis of Holbein’s paintings, theological and theological quests, Nerval’s poetry, mythical narratives, Dostoevsky’s prose, features of Orthodox Christianity, artistic creativity Duras. The book will be of interest to read not only by psychologists, but also by everyone who is interested in the latest trends in humanitarian research. The text of the book was translated from the original language using an artificial intelligence program. For the most part, the translation of the text is of very high quality, but in some cases, due to the imperfection of the technology, there may be incorrect phrase translations in the text, as well as single words and expressions may not be translated.