In psychiatry, the criteria by which the need for psychiatric attention is evaluated are often the object of disagreements, thus bringing to the fore debates regarding the validity of the concept of mental illness. Whereas anti-psychiatrists, such as Szasz(1961), argue against the prevention of suicide, Freud (1915) describes a case of melancholia that would justify psychiatric intervention in suicidal individuals. In this article, I examine these arguments and argue that Freud’s account of melancholia puts Szasz’s position into question.
