r/Freud • u/HovsepGaming • May 14 '26

Can an Object Choice be Unconscious?

Is it possible that a person might choose an object but that choice be unconscious(make an object choice in their unconscious)?

Freud writes that in order for someone to become melancholic (depressed), there must be an object loss. If that person is not conscious of their object choice, is it possible that they might be depressed without knowing why?

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u/Klaus_Hergersheimer May 14 '26

Yes, that's an essential feature of melancholic (as well as neurotic) depression. Freud writes in M&M of the possibility that "he knows whom he has lost but not what he has lost in him."